Becoming God’s Friend

1. Becoming God’s Friend Servant, Steward or Son

2. How Does Your Relationship With God Make You Feel? • Secure or Fearful? • Limited or Limitless? • Worthy or Unworthy? • Trusted or Suspected?

3. The bond you have with God is intended to lift you up and make you more than you could be without it. If understanding God’s presence in your life fills you with guilt and shame and doubt, there is some more that you need to know about God.

4. A Starting Question “What is God’s plan for me?” • You can ask this question out of hope. • You can ask this question out of fear.

5. Perception is Reality • This weekend is about your perception. • The reality of God’s blessings and His disposition toward you is of little tangible benefit until you accept them. • When your perception changes, what you believe is possible changes.

6. Our Premise This Weekend Faith Fulfilled Ends in Friendship

7. Friendship Defined • Friendship is trust. • It is a mutual trust that is reciprocated with every positive interaction.

8. “What is a friend? A single soul dwelling in two bodies.” Aristotle

9. What is Your Relationship With God Like? I am God’s ______________

10. I am God’s _________ • Servant • Steward • Son • Friend

11. I am God’s Servant

12. I am God’s Servant • We all men are servants of something. • “Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?” (Romans 6:16) • We are given the choice of whom we will obey.

13. Choosing to Serve God is the Harder Choice • Matthew 7:13-14 – “. . . And those who find it are few.” • Why choose to serve God? • For the servant the choice is easy: Life is Better than death.

14. Traits of Servants • Serve their masters out of obligation. • Motivated by self-preservation. • Controlled by fear. • Always feel the threat of punishment (Matthew 18, 24). • No rights in the home. • Highest goal is to “do the job just like the master would” (Matthew 10:25). • Success does not mean promotion or intimacy with the master (Luke 17:10).

15. Identifying Christian “Servants” • Always active, but never feeling like they have done enough. • Fear of failure fuels the engine of their spiritual life. • Are you saved? • “If I remain faithful” • “I’m working on it” • “I hope (think) I am”

16. The Faith of a “Servant” For the servant, his hope for Heaven is tied directly to his faith in himself. His hope can only be as strong as his faith in his own abilities to keep his master’s commands.

17. I am God’s steward

18. I am God’s Steward • “oikos” – House | “nemo” – Manager • Joseph in Potiphar’s house (Genesis 39:6) • New Testament Stewards – Parable of the Talents (Matthew 25) | Unjust Steward (Luke 16) • Stewards are trusted servants. They are servants with an opportunity to advance and grow in the master’s house (Matthew 25:21).

19. Traits of Stewards • Separated from servants by the promise of remuneration. • Invested in the process of growth. • Accountable only to the master (1 Corinthians 4:1-6). • All men are stewards of God and trust by Him (Psalm 8:4-6).

20. Identifying Christian “Stewards” • Focused on Heaven over Hell. • “Why do you serve God?” • No tears….No death…No pain… • I want to see _______ again.

21. The Faith of a “Steward” The service of the faith of a steward is still based on accounting principles. “I serve God so that I will receive” is the metric of a steward.

22. I am God’s son

23. Traits of Sons • Emulate servants and stewards as they grow in the home. • Galatians 4:1-2 • Remember the process of raising your own children. • They serve first to avoid punishment. • Then they serve for rewards. • Then they serve to honor. • “Remember Who You Are” (Luke 2:49).

24. I am God’s Son • Love is what separates servants and stewards from sons. • A son has a birthright. The father is obligated to care for him in ways that do not apply to even the best servants. • A son obeys, but that is the beginning of his relationship, not the end.

25. Identifying Christian “Sons” • They praise the nature of God. • They serve freely. • They long to exalt God. • Reward and Punishment are in the backgroud. In the foreground is only God. • “Am I Saved?” • Yes, because God is so good.

26. The Faith of a “Son” A son knows that no matter how he fails or struggles; he is still a son. Even if he turns, denounces his father, and walks away, like the Prodigal, he can come back. A good father always loves his son……. And God is THE good Father.

27. God’s “Sons” Know This The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. John 8:35-36

28. Remember, Perception not Reality • From the moment we are saved we become God’s servants, stewards, and sons. • This study is not meant to tell us to leave those thoughts behind. • It is designed to help us see beyond where we are to where we can go.

29. Becoming God’s Friend Friendship: Faith’s Journey

30. A Son vs. A Friend • What is the difference between a son and a friend? • To help answer that question, consider these: • When was the last time your father disciplined you? • When was the last time you feared he would? • When was the last time he had a reason to disciple you? • Why did his active discipline stop? • Did you become perfect? • Did he lose his moral authority?

31. You’re a Man Now, Son • Fathers, which of the following to wish for your sons: • Permanent Dependence • Like-minded Independence

32. Permanent Dependence • The son never leaves the home • The son never takes responsibility • The son never learns from the negative consequences of his actions • The son needs constant supervision, guidance, counsel, etc. • The father’s work is never finished Is that why you had a son?

33. Like-minded Independence • The son carries on the family values • The son expands on the work of the father • The son can begin to teach another generation the values and principles of the father • The father has replicated himself in another person • The father’s work with his son is complete. He is free to begin another work. • The father has a companion which to share the joys and heartaches of life Is that why you had a son?

34. Friendship is a Like-minded Independence • When the son begins to make the same judgments as his father, the father offer himself to his son in more intimate ways. • There is no fear of spoiling the son or enabling bad behavior. • They walk together in the natural agreement of their values, not by any compulsion or fear of disappointment. • The son has become his father’s friend.

35. You’re a Man Now, Church • God’s work was to create a full-grown, adult and like-minded church in this world. • The growth and maturation of His saints is of utmost importance to God’s plan

36. You’re a Man Now, Church . . .until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children . . . Ephesians 4:13-14

37. You’re a Man Now, Church You need milk, not solid food, for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. But solid food is for the mature . . . Hebrews 5:12–14

38. You’re a Man Now, Church . . . and not holding fast to the Head, from whom the whole body, nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God. Colossians 2:19

39. Like-minded with God “But the Bible says we can’t ever think the way God thinks and act the way God acts!” For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. Isaiah 55:8-9

40. Like-minded with God Read the verses before it! “Seek the LORD while he may be found; call upon him while he is near; let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the LORD, that he may have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. Isaiah 55:6–7

41. Like-mind with God • God, through Isaiah, is rebuking Israel for not having His mind and ways, not informing them they cannot be like Him. • How does God tell them to discover His thoughts and ways? . . . so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it. Isaiah 55:11

42. The Path to Like-mindedness with God: Faith • The word that goes forth from the mouth of God accomplishes that for which it is sent (Isaiah 55:11). • It was sent to allow men to grow up in His knowledge and grace (1 Peter 2:2; 2 Peter 3:18). • When men forsake their thoughts and ways and replace them with God’s thoughts and ways, they become of one mind with Him. • The Bible word for that process is “faith” (Romans 10:17). • Faith is a process that has both a promise and a fulfillment.

43. The Promise and Fulfillment in Faith • Abraham is praised for and counted as righteous for his faith in Genesis 15:6. • Notice James’ words about the promise and fulfillment of Abraham’s faith: Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works; and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”—and he was called a friend of God. (Jas 2:21–23)

44. The Promise and Fulfillment of Faith • Abraham is counted as righteous at 75 years old (Genesis 15:6). • James states that the scripture (Genesis 15:6) praising his faith was fulfilled when Abraham’s works completed his faith in his offering of Isaac. Abraham was well-past 100 years of age by then. • At least 30 and maybe as many as 50 years separate Genesis 15 from Genesis 22. It took that long for Abraham’s faith to be “fulfilled.” Question: When was Abraham ready to be called the “friend of God?”

45. The Promise and Fulfillment of Faith • AFTER he offered up Isaac. • Nearly 50 years fill the gap between the promise of Abraham’s faith and the fulfilled, perfected faith we associate with him. • Abraham’s journey from Ur to Moriah was a journey of faith, that ended in his friendship with God. • Just as with Abraham, your journey with God is a journey for a lifetime that has one goal in mind: Friendship.

46. Friendship: Faith’s Journey • “Funny, the older I get, the smarter my dad gets.” • What we are acknowledging in that statement is that the truths that our fathers taught us (and, as young people, we tried to reject) were true all along. • We got to that point by testing those truths and finding out they were indeed truth. • We learned to trust them. We adopted them as our own. Our thoughts became just like our fathers thoughts. • We then had faith (trust) in the power of the same principles. • There is the process of faith.

47. Friendship: Faith’s Journey • Friendship is a mutual trust, deepened by positive interactions. • Faith is trust deepened by the testing of true values and principles. • It is the process of testing inherent in faith that leads to friendship. • Our Father has told us His mind. He has shared His values with us and has encouraged us to test His principles. • As we do, we find them to be true. We trust them. And so we trust Him. • In time we adopt His values. We no longer need to ask, “WWJD?” We already know. We are His friends.

48. Friendship: Faith’s Journey • The more nearly we learn to trust His word and not to lean on our own understanding, the closer we come to realizing a true friendship with God. • We cease to serve to avoid punishment, receive a reward or even simply to honor God. • We make the choices in life that we do (the same ones God would make), not just because He wants us to, but because we want the same things. We value the same truths. • We are His companions in faith. We are His friends.

49. Becoming God’s Friend Living by Faith

50. Living by Faith • If faith’s journey is what brings us to friendship, should we not live by faith at all times? • But what does it actually mean to “live by faith?” Question: Did Abraham leave Ur and go to the Promised Land by Faith? Question: Did Lot leave Haran and go to the Promised Land by Faith?