Good morning. How y 'all doing today? All the
people that messed up their clocks, you're going
to show up right in the middle of the study,
I think, right? Or is it the other way? I can't
remember. Oh, they got here early, yeah. Well,
for those of you that are here, I want to say
welcome to all of you, and if you're watching
online for the first time, or just because, welcome.
We're so glad you're all here to worship with
us here at Hosanna. As you can see, we've got
a new pulpit. And I just wanted to give a thank
you. This was a gift from Pastor Art over at
Calvary Downey. And so we're very grateful for
that and thank him for the support and whatnot.
But today we are going to be talking about what
being a friend of God is and how to maintain
that friendship. See, what would you do? if you
got a call from heaven and it said, hey, in a
couple days, Jesus and a couple angels are going
to show up. For many of us, we'd be like, oh
my gosh, I got to clean. I've got to put in new
flooring. I've got to repaint. Some of us might
be, I have to completely remodel the bathroom
because wow. But some, when you think about that,
you're like, oh, I might have to throw away some
magazines. clear the search history on my web
browser. Others might be embarrassed for him
to come and see what you really spend your money
on. But would you be comfortable for him to just
simply see how you live every day, how you start
your day, how you end your day? What about parents?
Would you be excited for him to come and see
how you intentionally disciple your kids in the
home? Certainly, there's no arguments with the
spouse while he's over, right? We got to put
on a good front. But what if the Lord wasn't
just coming for a visit? What if he was moving
in? How would you feel then? Would you be like,
I'm uncomfortable, right? He's going to be there
every day, chilling on the couch, watching you,
listening to you, seeing how you act, what you
do, how you behave. How did that make you feel?
Worried? or blessed or excited. You know, as
Christians, we talk about having a personal relationship
with Jesus all the time. But for some Christians,
unfortunately, they don't want it to be too personal.
They're absolutely fine with him coming over
once in a while or you going to visit him once
a week at church. But beyond that, it's a little
invasive, Lord. You're getting into my business
too much. But those who are friends with the
living God invite him into every area of their
life. Every dark corner, every dirty room, you
invite him in because you know he's going to
do a work there. We also invite him in as friends
because we understand he's long -suffering with
us. He's patient, he's compassionate, he's caring.
That he's not so much worried about us getting
the outward stuff. cleaned up and ready, but
he's going to do the work of cleaning up the
inward, which is what's most important. You know,
as believers, we are privileged to enjoy friendship
with God, and that's what we're going to be talking
about today, what that looks like, how to cultivate
that through the story of Abraham in Genesis
18. But first, we're going to pray, and then
we're going to worship God. And I pray today
that as we always acknowledge that God is Almighty
Creator, He is transcendent perfection. He is
ultimate good. He is all these things. Master,
Lord. Jesus said to his disciples, I no longer
call you servants. I've called you friends. And
having a friendship with Jesus Christ is an amazing
thing in our lives. And we just want to thank
God for that. And so pray with me. Father God,
we love you so much. God, we're so thankful that
you desire to be in our life. God, we're so thankful
that as your children, You want to have a friendship
with us. Lord, a friendship that is real and
open and honest. A friendship where we dialogue
together and hang out together. To break bread
together. And so, Lord, today as we learn from
Abraham, just really what goes into cultivating
that type of relationship. Lord, that we would
be encouraged to do what we need to do. to draw
closer to you in our friendship with you. God,
we don't ever want to look at friendship as a
way to devalue the supreme nature of who you
are. But God, we want to understand what you
meant when you said, I've called you friends.
So Lord, bless us today. We praise you. We worship
you. We glorify you. It's in Jesus' name we pray.
Amen. All right, we are in Genesis chapter 18.
And we're going to be looking at verses 1 through
8 today. But springboarding off of our intro,
you know, the idea of knowing God and being known
by God, it's the greatest privilege a Christian
could have. It is the greatest privilege. It's
greater than fame, fortune, money, success, just
being known by God and knowing him. It's a tremendous
thing that we have the opportunity to do. And
that's why it's part of our mission here at Hosanna
where we say, know the truth, live the truth,
share the truth. Knowing the truth, we put a
great emphasis on studying the word of God verse
by verse. And we go through all of that because
knowing the truth means knowing the word of God.
And the Bible tells us that Jesus is the word
of God. So it's about knowing the Lord. It's
all Jesus, everything, every problem. The answer
is Jesus. I'm struggling with this, Jesus. He
is everything. And so we want to study that and
focus on that, but as we go through the word,
we learn so much about him. We learn about his
deity, right? We understand that his omniscience,
his power, his holiness is immense. But God also
wants us to know his friendship. He wants us
to know him as a friend. And so in this scripture
we're looking at today, Genesis 18, verse 1 and
8, this is the foundational scriptures that lead
to Abraham being called the friend of God in
three different places throughout the Bible.
And we're going to look at those later. But those
references of Abraham was God's friend come from
this story here and teach us much about what
friendship with God is and how to cultivate it.
And so read with me in verse 1, Genesis chapter
18. The Lord appeared to Abraham at the Oaks
of Mamre while he was sitting at the entrance
of his tent during the heat of the day. Now,
chronologically, we know that in the previous
chapters where God showed up to Abraham again,
renamed him. Abraham, renamed his wife Sarah,
reiterated the covenant, added some details to
that covenant, and then basically said, this
is going to be the sign of that covenant, that
you're going to be circumcised, and all the men
will be circumcised, and this will be a sign
in your people that you are people of the covenant,
right? And so, It was at that time God told Abraham
in verse 21 of Genesis 17 that your wife Sarah
is going to give birth in a year. And that was
the first time that was confirmed. And so, of
course, Abraham laughed a little bit because
he's like, really? Like, we're old. How's that
going to happen? But God said, no, you know,
this is going to happen. And so here in Genesis
18, Sarah's not yet pregnant. And we all know
how long it takes a baby to grow, right? Nine
months, right? I was going to say public school,
wow. Nine months, okay? So this is likely within
three months of chapter 17. And so there hasn't
been a whole lot of time since the circumcision,
since the ratification of the covenant, since
the renaming of these two. And so here we are,
Abram's at home in the town of the place of Mamre,
and it tells us that the Lord appeared. Now the
word Lord there, it's in all caps in your Bible.
That's the word Yahweh. That's that covenant
name that we talk about where God identifies
himself as Yahweh, the Lord God. That's to indicate
the personal relationship that God has with us,
right? Because there's a lot of different ways
to view God, and one of them is that he is transcendently
huge, awesome, and powerful, right? It's the
God that created the universe with a word. But
then there's this aspect of God where he's like,
I want to have a personal relationship. with
you, and that's this word Yahweh, and it tells
us that he appeared. Now, there's good biblical
reason to believe that the physical appearances
of God in the Old Testament are indeed Christophanies.
That word is simply a play on the word theophany,
which means an appearance of God that is tangible
to the human senses, right? We see a lot of those
throughout the Old Testament, but the word Christophany
is taking that a little bit further and narrowing
the scope and saying that when we see a physical
appearance of God in the Old Testament, it's
specifically the appearance of God the Son, the
second person of the Trinity, who we know as
Jesus Christ after the incarnation. And there's
a few reasons for that. In John 1, verse 18,
it says, no one has ever seen God. The one and
only Son, who is himself God, note that, and
is at the Father's side, he has revealed him.
So it's telling us the Son, who is also God,
is the one who has revealed God the Father to
us, right? We're able to see and interact, or
the world was able to see and interact with God.
Through the sun being manifest on the earth.
Now in 1 Timothy 6 .16, it goes on speaking about
God. It says, he alone is immortal and lives
in unapproachable light whom no one has seen
or can see. Now verses like this is what caused
some of the cults to say Jesus couldn't possibly
be God. Because if God can't be seen, we saw
Jesus, then there's no way he could be God. Sounds
logical, but here's the issue. When you put these
verses together, we start to see a picture of
the Trinitarian existence of God. We conclude
from these two verses that Jesus, who is himself
God, revealed God the Father, whom no one has
seen or can see, to us. which basically means
that when God appears physically in the Old Testament,
there's good reason to say it's an appearance
of God the Son. He is the part of the Trinity
that has revealed himself physically in a way
that we could perceive him. And so, again, people
argue over this. Is it God? Is it not God? I
personally do think this is an appearance of
Jesus Christ pre -incarnate in the Old Testament.
So he appears there at the Oaks of Mamre, and
this is a location that is very important in
the life of Abraham. If you remember back in
Genesis 12 after the debacle in Egypt where he
lied about his wife, it says that they then settled
here in this place called Mamre where these oaks
were. In Genesis 14, I'm sorry, that was Genesis
13. In Genesis 14, it indicates that they stayed
there a very long time. So this was a central
home and base of operations for Abram. And it
was the place where he ended up purchasing a
field and a cave to be the burial site for his
wife, burial site for himself, and the burial
site for his son, Isaac. So, time and location,
verse 2. He looked up and he saw three men standing
near him. When he saw them, he ran from the entrance
of the tent to meet them, bowed to the ground,
and said, My Lord, if I have found favor with
you, please do not go on past your servant. Now,
did Abraham know who this visitor was at this
point? We know that as we read later on into
Genesis 18, obviously Abraham goes, oh, it's
the Lord God, right? But here, did he know it
was the Lord God? People argue about that too.
It doesn't matter. Okay? It doesn't matter who
it is. I personally do believe that Abraham knew
it was the Lord God here, and there's a few indications
for that. One, in Genesis 12 -7 and Genesis 17
-1, God has already appeared to Abraham twice.
So there's reason to say he recognized the visitor.
There's other reasons beyond that too. We see
that Abraham ran from the tent. He bowed to the
ground, posture of worship. And then his insistence
that they don't pass by, please stop, please
stay, tells us that he recognized that these
were very special guests. Verse one, it says
the Lord God appeared. Verse two, it says he
looked up and they were just standing there.
Both of those words in the Hebrew are kind of,
they carry a sense of suddenness, right? Or,
Poof, the Lord appeared, right? So the idea is
that people look at that and they go, you know,
Abraham didn't hear them coming. He didn't see
them coming. They were just there. And then later
on in verse 9, these visitors call his wife Sarah
by name without anybody telling them that Sarah
was her name. And they used the new covenant
name for Sarah instead of Sarai. And so those
are reasons why I believe that Abram knew from
the beginning, but it's possible he didn't. But
again, it doesn't matter too much. If he didn't
know it, it would explain Hebrews 13 too, which
says, don't neglect to show hospitality, for
by doing this, some have welcomed angels as guests
without knowing it. There are people that look
at that and they go, this is referring to this
story in Genesis 18. The idea there is just be
hospitable as a Christian, okay? So in verse
four, Genesis 18, we move on. He says, let a
little water be brought that you may wash your
feet and rest yourselves under the tree. I will
bring a bit of bread so that you may strengthen
yourselves. This is why you have passed your
servant's way. Later, you can continue on. Yes,
they replied, do as you have said. So Abraham
hurried into the tent and said to Sarah, quick,
need three measures of fine flour and make bread.
Abraham ran to the herd and got a tender choice
calf, and he gave it to a young man who hurried
to prepare it. Then Abraham took curds and milk
as well as the calf that he had prepared and
set them before the men, and he served them as
they ate under the tree. Now, those are the verses
we're looking at today, and there's a lot in
these verses that show us what it means to cultivate
a friendship with God. Sharing a meal together
is often a picture of unity, a picture of fellowship,
a picture of friendship, right? The idea of breaking
bread together. You know, we know that. Oftentimes
when we're hanging out with friends and people
we care about, like, hey, let's go get lunch.
Let's go here. Let's go get some food. But in
the Bible, we see that the idea of sitting around
a meal showed significant times of unity and
fellowship in the Bible. One we celebrated last
week in communion was the Last Supper, where
Jesus was having a meal with his disciples in
the time where he was going to say, you know,
hey, one of you is going to betray me, and da
-da -da -da -da. In Book of Acts, as the church
was growing, it says they broke bread together
from house to house, eating their food joyfully,
praising God. So again, we see this picture of
fellowship and unity around meals. In the book
of Acts, when the apostle Peter had the vision
of the sheet that came down from heaven with
all the foods clean and unclean on it, you remember
that story? That was God using the concept of
food and meals together to illustrate unity and
fellowship with the Gentiles. Because there was
men coming up to say, hey, Peter, our Gentile
master Cornelius has an issue. Can you come talk
to us? And Jesus saw this vision, or Peter saw
this vision and was like, you gross. And God
said, don't call unclean what I've called unclean,
or what I've called clean, and then so on and
so forth. And then our reunion with the Lord
at the end of time when we are in heaven is called
what? The marriage supper of the Lamb. And so
all these pictures wrapped around the idea of
having a meal together always show us unity,
show us fellowship, show us reconciliation, show
us the ideas of friendship and being together.
And as I mentioned earlier, there's three times
in Scripture where Abraham is called the friend
of God that are really based out of the picture
of what is going on here. In 2 Chronicles 20
verse 7, it says, Are you not our God who drove
out the inhabitants of this land before your
people Israel? and who gave it forever to the
descendants of Abraham, your friend. In Isaiah
41 .8, it says, but you, Israel, my servant Jacob,
whom I have chosen, descendant of Abraham, my
friend. In James 2 .23, it says, and the scripture
was fulfilled that says, Abraham believed God
and it was credited to him as righteousness,
and he was called God's friend. And then, of
course, we have the scripture where Jesus was
talking to his disciples in John 15, 15. He says,
I do not call you servants anymore because a
servant doesn't know what his master is doing.
I have called you friends because I have made
known to you everything I have heard from my
Father. So the concept of being friends with
Jesus, friends with God, it's a biblical concept.
Now Abraham was very specially designated as
a friend of God, but when we get to the New Testament,
we see that Jesus is saying, all who believe
in me, you're my friends. This doesn't diminish
the fact that he's God and he's omnipotent and
he's almighty. It doesn't diminish those things.
It just shows us the side of the relationship
and the side of who God is. Now, the word friend
simply means a person you know well and regard
with affection and trust. We all know what a
friend is. Some of us sometimes have our own
variations and definitions of friend. In high
school, a friend was the homie who would take
a bullet for you. I'm like, all right, please
don't do that. I'd rather you be alive, you know.
But, you know, we have these different definitions.
A friend does this, doesn't do that, whatnot.
But simply the idea of friend is that idea of
someone who cares about you, someone who has
a commitment to you. In the Old Testament, the
central idea of friendship throughout the Old
Testament was the idea of loyalty. That friendship
meant you were loyal to someone else, that you
were committed to them, that their interests
were your interests, that their well -being was
of great concern to you. This is what friendship
was. And then we saw that spill over into sharing
of one another's lives and one another's things.
You get to the New Testament, it's the same idea.
That this loyalty, this commitment is there.
But the New Testament puts a greater emphasis
on the idea of mutual sharing. What's mine is
yours, what's yours is mine. The idea of sharing
in each other's lives. Like, hey, let me get
into the nitty gritty and the trenches of your
life and you get involved in the trenches of
my life and we encourage and support one another.
This is all around the idea of friendship. In
the New Testament, you often see people that
were trusted by being entrusted with important
errands or taking letters to different places,
and so this was all wrapped up in this idea.
So when we say being a friend of God, someone
is a friend of God, what we mean is that God
knows you well and regards you with affection
and trust, and you know God well and regard him
with affection and trust. Friendship with God
sounds like an amazing thing, and it is. Who
wouldn't want to sit on the couch with God and
hang out and eat Funyuns or whatever and just,
you know, talk, play video games, watch our favorite
TV shows? I mean, and just like, what's up, dude?
What do you think about this? And oh, yeah, da
-da -da. I mean, friendship, just that casual,
open honesty that is there in a friendship. Who
wouldn't want to do that? But when we consider,
Here in Genesis 18, and we'll see this in next
week's study, that God and these two angels are
traveling through this area because they are
on their way to Sodom, where these two angels
are going to destroy Sodom in the cataclysm there.
When we consider that God sees all, right? He
judges sin and sinners. The idea of hanging out
and being chummy -chummy with God can be a little
intimidating. You know, it could be a little
difficult to open up to him as a friend. And
so what we do is we treat him like we would the
CEO of the company that we don't know really
well, but we know he's the boss. And so we respect
his authority. We fear him, but we definitely
don't want to go, you know, have a burger with
him, right? There's a difference of relationship
there. But our closest friends, our closest friends
in our life, these are the people who accept
us, right? These are the people that we could
tell our darkest secrets to and they don't judge
us. They might tell us we're stupid, but they
still love you. They still accept you, right?
These closest friends in our lives, the ones
that will call us out on our stupidity. And they
have the... right to do that, right? You've given
them that right. You've let them in so they can
call you out on stuff and you're not offended.
You know that they do it because they care, because
they love you. And they're often the first person
you call when there's good news, right? You're
closest, your best friend. When things are really
difficult, they might be the first one you reach
out to when you need support. And Jesus is those
things to us. He's also the judge. He's also
wholly transcendent in power. He's also flawlessly
and perfectly good. And so sometimes when we
focus on that part of him, it creates this situation
where we don't want to let him in all the way.
We don't want to tell him our darkest secrets
as if he doesn't already know. We don't want
to have the conversation with him. Right in the
moment where we sinned, in the very second you're
past the sin and you're like, my gosh, I feel
terrible. And we don't want to talk to God right
then and there. Because we feel like as the CEO,
he's going to fire me. I'm going to be punished.
I'm going to be chastised. And he's all those
things. But Jesus said, I have called you friends.
Jesus revealed to us the compassionate, patient,
accepting, forgiving side of God. He revealed
that to us. You see, in the Old Testament, there
was no real friendship with God. God was unapproachable
in his holiness. So unapproachable, there was
one room where one guy could go into his presence
one time a year. And if he wasn't, clean and
pure and prayed up, he would be struck down dead
because of God's perfect holiness. And so the
relationship in the Old Testament was God is
the big almighty guy. And so we have to do these
sacrifices and we have to do all this stuff to
make ourselves clean before him, but there was
no concept of I'm just, I'm chilling in my tent
hanging out with Jesus, hanging out with God.
There was this aspect of his holiness which is
appropriate. But by the time we get to the New
Testament, we see Jesus revealing something else
about God. Something else about God's nature.
Something else about what God wants in a relationship
with us. And really, after Christ came and died
on the cross and was resurrected, what we see
is a sight of God in his holiness and his majesty
satisfied his own wrath. By sending his son to
take the entire judgment for sin. To die on the
cross in our place. So that through faith, simple
belief, we can have relationship with him. Close,
intimate relationship. When Jesus died on the
cross, the veil was torn in two. The veil that
separated that holy of holies from everybody
else. That was God saying, everybody can come
into my presence now. Through the blood of Christ.
So without the Son, yeah, you'll get the holy
justice of the Father. But with the Son, you
get to enter into the tender love and the mercy
and the grace that God has for us. And all of
that, those terms of that relationship, if you
will, are then sealed by the Holy Spirit of promise,
Ephesians tells us. God puts his mark on your
life. He says, you're mine. You're my child.
I love you. I am God Almighty, but I'm also Yahweh.
And for some of us, you know, if we asked ourselves
the question, when it comes to my relationship
with my spouse, right, we're friends. Like often
spouses are like, yeah, we're best friends, right?
We're friend number one to each other among other
things. but sometimes you might have a close
relationship with somebody you call your best
friend. If you treated that friendship the way
you treat your friendship with Jesus Christ,
how would that friendship do? And it's been said
before, but think about this. If you talked to
your spouse once a week on Sunday, that's the
day I talk to my spouse, but you didn't say a
word to them the rest of the week, how would
that go? Would it be harmonious? What if this?
What if praising your spouse in the sense of
like encouraging them, I love you so much and
you're so beautiful or handsome and man, you're
just it, you're my everything, right? Just lifting
them up and telling them how much you love and
adore them. If you only did that once a week,
but you didn't do it any other time. Never compliment,
never express to them how much you love them,
how important they were to you. And some of you
go, that would be dumb, but that's exactly what
you do with Jesus. You come to church once a
week and praise him and then you don't do it
the rest of the week. So how do we develop this
friendship with God? This friendship that Abraham
had? Well, it begins obviously with being reconciled
to God, right? Until you're reconciled to God,
there is no friendship with God. Outside of being
reconciled, that means that you've put your faith
in Jesus Christ, you've put your faith in his
sacrifice for you, his blood has washed you clean
of sin, and now God sees you spotless, blameless.
He says, you can come into my presence because
there's no sin. That's what being reconciled
is, and without that, you can't have a friendship
with God because the Bible is very clear that
outside of that, you're an enemy of God. that
you're separated from God, that you're standing
apart from God, and that's what sin does. The
Bible says that we are all children of wrath
by birth, that we're sinners, that we pursue
our own means, our own wants, our own desires,
and that sin alienates us from God. It separates
us from him, all of humanity. And since this
alienation from God due to sin is a universal
problem, then the universal solution for everybody
is reconciliation with God. When that happens,
that's when that friendship with God happens.
He becomes your Lord, yes. He becomes your master,
yes. He becomes your savior, yes. But he also
becomes your friend. And he wants that relationship
to start building. And this is where the good
news, right? This is where the gospel comes in.
We tell someone that your creator, you're alienated
from your creator by your own sin, breaking his
law, right? But he paid the price for it. And
you could have relationship with him, fellowship,
unity. You could be forgiven of your sin. You
could be able to enter into his presence now
and forever. That's the gospel of Jesus Christ.
And when a sinner believes and puts faith in
that, that the only acceptable provision for
their sin is Jesus Christ. When they believe
that, like Abraham, the righteousness is credited
to our account. And we talked about that in that
Bible study in Genesis 15, where it says that
Abram believed God and it was credited to him
as righteousness. That we're saved by faith.
I mean, right there, it's a pretty one -sided
friendship. God did everything. All you have
to do is go, I accept it, thanks. And then all
the benefits of that are given to you. But God
says, I want to do that. I chose to do that because
I love you. Paul goes on to quote this verse
in Genesis 15 twice when he's making the arguments
that we're saved by faith, not by works. James
quotes it in his letter where he says, look,
genuine faith will always result in good works.
Not perfect works, but good works. You see, there's
a difference between the person who says, I want
to please God. I want to be obedient to him.
But I have this sin nature, and so I struggle,
and sometimes I make the wrong decision intentionally.
And I feel bad. I'm convicted, and God, please
forgive me. There's a difference between that
person and this other person who goes, I'm a
Christian, but I'm living this lifestyle that
is clearly contradictory to the Bible, and I
don't care. It's okay for me to do this. I can
live how I want. I can love who I want. I don't
care what God's word says. There's a difference
between these two people. One is saved and is
going to have a life of good works. One is not
saved. They're just saying so, and there's no
good works in their life. There's no fruit. And
so, friendship with God requires reconciliation.
Next, friendship with God requires us to prioritize
it and make ourselves available for it. Friendship
takes an investment of time. We all know that.
And it's no different with God. You see in these
verses, we see Abraham was sitting at the door
when these visitors arrived. We don't know why
he was sitting at the door. He was just chilling
at the door. It tells us it's in the heat of
the day. Probably in the hottest part of the
day is what that means. And these guests show
up. And he wasn't too busy to spend time with
them. He wasn't too busy. He wasn't working late.
He wasn't sleeping in late. He wasn't rushing
from one errand to the next to spend time with
God. I personally believe Abraham knew it was
the Lord. And so they show up and Abraham is
immediately like, oh my gosh, you're here. I'm
not doing anything else. The most important thing
for me to do in this moment is to hang out with
you. Now God's in our life 24 hours a day and
yet so often we're like, I'm too busy. I'm too
busy. Sorry I can't talk to you. Sorry I can't
praise you. Sorry I can't read your word. Too
busy, too busy, too busy. And you're not going
to have a strong friendship with the Lord if
you're too busy to invest in a friendship with
the Lord. If you want to be a friend of God,
you have to take the time to hang out with him.
And when I say take the time, I mean prioritize
it, right? If you're the type of person that
says, I can't do anything unless I put things
on my calendar, then put time with God on your
calendar. If that doesn't work for you, whatever
works for you, make it happen. That's how you
cultivate a friendship with God. Yes, Abraham
lived in a different culture than ours, right?
He didn't have clocks and phones, but he was
still the head of a very large family with large
flocks. There was a lot of busyness going on,
and it was the heat of the day. Maybe he was
on lunch break. We don't know. But right there
in the middle of the day, It doesn't matter.
There's nothing more important than hanging out
with God, prioritizing this moment. You'll grow
in your relationship with God in line to how
much time you spend with him. You don't spend
a lot of time with God, your relationship's not
going to grow very well. You prioritize relationship
with God, your relationship will grow. There
are some Christians that unfortunately, they
spend more time with the world. That is actively
and openly trying to draw you away from God.
But they spend more time with that than they
do with their creator who died for them. Now,
the idea here is making it a priority. Salvation
is by faith. Adoption of the family is through
faith, right? This isn't about earning any of
that. But a strong friendship with God doesn't
happen without investing time into it. There's
a little booklet called My Heart, Christ's Home
that was written by Robert Boyd Munger. And in
this book, he compares his heart to a home where
Christ has been invited to dwell as a heavenly
guest. He goes room by room showing how the Lord
cleaned the dirty books off the shelves of the
study, took down the filthy pictures. He shows
how he cleaned the dining room of all his unhealthy
appetites and desires. The drawing room was a
comfortable room with a quiet atmosphere, and
the Lord agreed to meet him there each morning
for fellowship. At first, it was wonderful. As
they met, The Lord would pull books off the shelf,
open the scriptures, reveal to him what things
meant. They would have this wonderful fellowship
and commune together. But as the pressures of
outside responsibilities grew, that time with
the Lord got crowded out. Soon he was missing
several days in a row. Then one morning as he
was rushing out the door, he passed the drawing
room and noticed that the door was ajar. Looking
in, he saw the master sitting there alone. Grieved,
he said, Master, have you been here all these
mornings I've missed? Yes, said the Lord. I told
you I would be here every morning to meet with
you. Remember, I love you. I've redeemed you
at great cost. I desire your fellowship. God
wants to have a friendship with you. He wants
to have that open back and forth hangout with
you. He loves you. It's not I saved you, great,
I'm busy taking care of the universe. He wants
to sit with you. He wants to talk with you. He
wants to share with you. And so you've got to
prioritize that time. The next thing about cultivating
a friendship with God, it requires being eager
to be with him, right? Some of us are lackadaisical.
Eh, I'll spend time with God. And we don't understand.
How much God wants to be with us and how good
it is for us to be with him. In verses three,
we see this eagerness in Abraham. My Lord, if
I found favor with you, please don't go on past
your servant. Let a little water be brought that
you may wash your feet and rest yourselves under
the tree. I will bring a bit of bread so that
you may strengthen yourselves. This is why you've
passed this way. Later you can continue on. Abraham's
going, I'm so glad you're here. I want you to
be here. Please stay. In fact, let me make it
welcoming and comfortable for you to stay here.
I want you to be here. He's eager. And the idea
is that he's being hospitable towards God. Hospitality
is simply the idea of making someone feel welcome
and comfortable with you in your place. Verse
6, so Abram hurried into the tent and said to
Sarah, quick. Knead three measures of fine flour
and make bread. Abraham ran to the herd and got
a tender choice calf. He gave it to a young man
who hurried to prepare it. Did you see any words
here that might indicate a little bit of excitement
and enthusiasm and eagerness on Abraham's part?
Hurried, ran, ran quick, you know, all this stuff.
And keep in mind, this dude's 99 years old right
now. And it's noon in Israel. If you've ever
been to Israel, like, It's hot. It's hot like
at eight in the morning. You get to noon and
you're like, oh my gosh, no wonder it's a desert
in so many places here. Everything's just burned
up. Now it is God's land and holy land and it
is land of milk and honey, right? But the heat,
wow, is oppressive. And so this is where Abraham
is at and he's running, running, running, running,
running, running. It didn't matter that it was
the middle of the day. It didn't matter that
he was old. He wanted to make his guests comfortable.
He wanted his guests to know he was glad they
were there. How's your enthusiasm and eagerness
to have Jesus over? Has it died down a little
bit over the years? Eh, you know, if I get to
it. Oh, man, it's, and I'm going to put somebody
on blast here, I'm sure, but. It's a Sunday and
I just woke up a little late. I'm not gonna go
to church. I'm just gonna watch it online. This,
right? But there's eagerness. The eagerness isn't
there anymore, right? I'm excited to get up and
go to church. I'm excited to see my family. Oh
my gosh, Lord, I know you've given me gifts.
I'm excited to share with somebody. Lord, do
you have a word of knowledge for me, a word of
prophecy? Can I pray with someone? Right? We
saw Rick up here and just, I've talked to John
and others that have gone up to Altadena and
they're just like, the prayer, the opportunity
to pray for people is so holy, so amazing. We
get to do that here. And yet sometimes, I don't
feel like going to church. And that's just one
day. What about getting up to do your quiet time
or your devotions? What about putting on worship
and when you're driving from place to place instead
of some of the other things? The other things
aren't bad, but do you find yourself listening
to everything but worship exclusively? You know,
these types of things are the idea of like, God,
I want you to be present and comfortable in my
life. I don't want things in my life that show
you that I'm holding you out. He's eager. But
sometimes that enthusiasm dies down. The idea
would be like, you know, guests would come over
and you used to clean the bathroom. But now you're
like, look, it's my bathroom, deal with it. If
you don't like my bathroom, don't come over.
Right? That's how I've always been. I've used
to think, I'm like, I'm so hospitable. Because
I would be like, my door's open. It used to frustrate
some of my roommates because I'm like, leave
the front door open. And I would tell everybody
that were my friends, come over whenever you
want. Even if I'm not here, you want to stop
by and get some milk out of the fridge, go for
it, right? And I'm like, oh, hospitality. But
then the house is thrashed. I'm comfortable in
it. But other people aren't comfortable in it.
And then as the year's been going on, I've had
people come into my life that, you know, are
showing me and teaching me and exampling the
importance of hospitality, right? There are times
people come over the house and I'm like, please
don't go into the bathroom. You might not come
out, right? Please. And it's not hospitality
to say, it's my house, deal with it. If you don't
like how I live, don't come, right? That's not
hospitality. That's self -focused. Abraham's
eager hospitality, we see it's all about his
guests, right? So often we look at our time with
the Lord through the lens of what it's going
to do for us, right? Quiet time, devotion, worship.
What is it going to do for me? I know it's good
for me. I know it's healthy for me. But we're
looking at it exclusively from the lens of what
it's going to do for us. What about looking at
the time hanging out with Jesus? Through the
lens of what it does for him. He wants to hang
out with you. He's eager to hang out with you.
He's blessed, pleased, excited, happy to hang
out with you. What about saying, Jesus, I want
to hang out with you just because I know you
love it so much. And yes, we get blessing from
it, but when we focus on that alone, sometimes
we're like, oh, I don't need it. And we leave
him sitting alone in the drawing room waiting
for us to show up. Now, if you've lost your eagerness
to make time to prepare your heart for the Lord
and all that, just remind yourself, it's not
just for you. It's for him too. It's for him
too. He wants to hang out with you because he
loves you. He's eager to hang out with you. He
can't wait. And it's worth the effort on our
part to make that time. Friendship with God,
it costs time. It costs intentionality and being
available, and it also costs materially. This
is part of that friendship. You see, Abraham
said here, guys, please don't go. Let me go get
a bit of bread. Bit of bread. Then he runs in
and he tells his wife, quick, make three measures
of flour and make some bread. Do you have any
idea how much three measures of flour is? I did
the math. Okay. It's five to eight gallons of
flour, which results in 25 to 40 loaves of bread.
Let me go get a bit of bread for you. Honey,
make enough for an army. That was an investment
on his part. That was the resources. That was
stuff he gave. Then he went out and got the choice
calf, right? Not the lame calf. Not the calf
with a gimpy limp. Let's use that one. No. the
choice one, the valuable one, but his guests
were worth it. You see, eager hospitality with
God is that idea that, Lord, not only do I want
to spend time with you and I know you want to
spend time with me, but everything I have is
yours. So spending my resources on you and what
you want and what you're doing, especially when
it's time for us to be together, is the most...
valuable thing you could spend your time and
money on. Right? Sometimes God might be speaking
to us and is like, hey, you need to get a new
Bible. That one you got, you've read it very
well. And you're like, but then I won't be able
to go to Starbucks. Excuse me? You know, God
might be saying, hey, there's opportunities to
serve or to invest. Sometimes your church says
there's needs here in your church or there's
missionaries who want to support and things we
want to support and it's like, well, you know,
I might not be able to get that thing that I've
been wanting to get. Now, there's nothing wrong
with getting the thing. God doesn't care if you
buy a boat or not. What he cares is if you're
stingy with what he's given you so that you can
go get what you want instead of doing what he
wants. That's where this idea of generosity and
giving comes in, but that's a whole different
Bible study. The idea is in our friendship with
God, when we say, God, all I have is yours. I
just want to bless you. I want you to know how
important you are to me, and I prioritize you
and your kingdom and your will with all that
I have. The idea is as you're sitting on that
couch with God, he could look at you and he goes,
I knew I could trust you with what's mine. I
knew I could trust you with my resources. Well
done. Lastly, friendship with God requires obedience.
Duh. Genesis 18 comes right after Genesis 17
where Abraham was obedient to God's call. Circumcise
everybody. Now in John 14, 21, it says the one
who has my commands and keeps them is the one
who loves me. And the one who loves me will be
loved by my father. I also love him and reveal
myself to him. A couple verses later in John
14, 23, Jesus said, if anyone loves me, he will
keep my word. My father will love him. And we
will come to him and make our home with him.
You see, Jesus wants to move in. He wants to
move in. And he says, if you love me, you'll
keep my word. Now, some of us are going, ah,
that's impossible. We can't be perfect. He's
not saying be perfect. As I said earlier, there's
a difference between the person who goes, God,
I want to keep your word and I strive towards
that and I study and I read and sometimes I stumble
and fall and I'm so sorry. There's a difference
between that person and this person who goes,
I know the Bible says I shouldn't do that, but
I don't care. But I go to church once a week.
There's a difference between those two people.
One demonstrates love, one doesn't. Abraham's
obedience in the circumcision, it wasn't an easy
thing to do. They were grown men. It was a painful
process, possibly ridiculed by others, right?
People in the air, why are you doing that? That's
weird. Maybe it didn't make sense to him, but
he did it. He did it. He obeyed. And then, of
course, in Genesis 22, we have the ultimate obedience
where Isaac is finally there, the son of the
promise, right? Through him, the whole world's
going to be blessed. And then one day God says,
yeah, take him up on the mountain and sacrifice
him. Abraham's faith was so solid. His relationship
with God was so close. He understood his God
so intently that Hebrews tells us Abraham's conclusion
was, well, that he's going to raise him from
the dead. Because God made promises, and I know
my God so well, that if he told me to sacrifice
my son, and that meant kill him, that he's going
to raise him from the dead because there's no
way his promises could come true if my son is
dead. Faith. But that came from him knowing his
God. He knew God. He knew the promises that God
makes. He doesn't break them. He knew. Cultivating
friendship with God means proactively growing
in obedience to him. Proactively. He may be asking
you to break off a relationship that you're in
right now. It could be a friendship. It could
be a romantic relationship. But it's a hindrance
to your relationship with him. Obey. You'll be
better for it. Maybe he's putting his finger
on that sin that you love. And he's going, this
needs to go now. And we go, but no, no conversation.
This needs to go now. Just obey. We're friends,
right? That means loyalty, right? You say you
love me. I love you too. But this needs to go.
Being a friend means commitment. It means loyalty.
And it means obedience to him. And then at the
end of verse 8, the conclusion of this matter
is they ate under the tree. They shared a meal
together. They broke bread together. They enjoyed
each other's company for the sake of the company.
There was no agenda. Right? Oh my gosh, I'm going
to commit to my quiet times and my devotions
because I want God to bless this thing or do
this thing for me. That's not how it works. They
had fellowship and unity and friendship for the
sake of it. Now, I've said this a couple times,
but please hear this. God wants a friendship
with you. He wants that honest, open, informal,
just hanging out relationship. Yeah, he's also
your master and your Lord and your God, but he
wants to hang out with you. A few weeks ago or
a month ago or something, I was out talking with
some good friends and we were talking about the
idea of like walking with God, how we repent
and when we repent and how God deals with that.
We were talking about this whole thing and then
God gave me this illustration and I want to share
it with you. And the illustration started this
way, it just came to my mind, like the Christian
life is like sitting on a couch with Jesus, your
shoulder to shoulder, talking, sharing, telling
each other stories about what's happened. Jesus
is like, oh yeah, this is what this means. Wow,
I had a question about, right? Just this wonderful
fellowship with him. Maybe you guys are just
doing other things, just hanging out, enjoying
each other's company. Maybe watching your favorite
shows on TV. that are approved by Jesus, right?
But as you're sitting there watching TV, you
scroll past something that you know you shouldn't
watch. And you hesitate. And you're suddenly
aware of the presence of Jesus sitting right
next to you. But now it's not that buddy you
were hanging out with, it's that judge. And you
think, I shouldn't watch this. And Jesus says,
yep. But you don't make eye contact with him
because you can't do that. And you hit play anyways.
And then as you're watching this thing, Jesus
fades from your mind. Feels like you're on the
couch alone, isolated. No one's around, so you're
hidden in your sin, right? Nobody can see what's
going on. He's sitting right there. But in the
midst of your sin, you forget about it for a
moment. When the show is over, you stop. And
you can see Jesus in your peripheral vision.
He's looking at you. And he has a sad look on
his face. A little bit of hurt. But there's no
anger. There's no judgment. There's just understanding.
And you can't look at him. No way. How can you
look at him after what you just did? I can't
make eye contact with him, but he's right there.
He's still looking at me. And he says, hey. Taps
you on the shoulder very gently. Hey. Hey, can
you look at me? And we say loudly, I can't. No,
I'm ashamed. I don't want to talk to you right
now. Do you know what I just did? He's like,
yeah, sitting right here. Look at me. And he
persists. So eventually we slowly turn to face
him, but we don't lift our eyes up. We can't
make eye contact. That's too convicting. And
so our eyes stay down, but as our eyes turn to
look at him, what we notice again is the wounds
in his hands. And they're never so obvious to
us than they are in times like this, are they?
Finally, finally we look up, we make eye contact,
and we see that there's just compassion there.
He's not angry with us. Instead, there's moist
tears about to fall from his eyes. Because he
knows what the sin does to us. And we look at
him and we finally say, Lord, I know I shouldn't
have done that. And he says, I know. And we say,
but Lord, I did it anyways. I'm so sorry. And
he goes, I know. And then we might say things
like, Lord, I hate myself. Why do I keep doing
this? I deserve punishment, Lord. I deserve punishment
over this. And he goes, I know. And then we say,
so do it. Leave. Kick me out. Punish me. I sinned
against you, Lord. And then he says, I did, as
he points to the wounds in his hand. Our gaze
drops again. We look down at our lap, ashamed,
incredibly aware of how unworthy we are to be
there with him. And then we feel a soft tap on
our shoulder. And we look up again, and he says
the same thing he says every single time in this
moment. He goes, hey, want to hang out? But Jesus,
I just, I know, I paid for that. Let's hang out.
But, come on, let's just hang out. Every single
time it happens. Jesus again is gonna say, I
paid for that. So you wanna hang out? Let's sit,
let's talk. Let's spend time together. That is
the cure to sin. Jesus. Him, what he did, being
close to him. And the more we say yes when he
says, you wanna hang out? The more we're gonna.
Say no to the temptations when they come. We're
never going to be perfect in this life. But we're
all striving to develop that obedience with God.
And our life isn't one where he's in the other
room unaware of what we're doing. He's sitting
right there. And he's always saying, let's hang
out. Let's talk. Let's share. And sin is the
thing that shuts us off and says, no, I cannot
have fellowship with you. And that's a lie. Because
if you turn to him, he already knows you sinned.
We acknowledge our sin. He says, I already paid
for it. And then he says, I paid for it. It's
gone. Let's hang out. Father, we thank you so
much for who you are, what you've done, and what
you're doing. Father, we're so grateful that
you sent your son to reveal yourself to us. That
we would understand that, yes, you are God Almighty.
Your wrath against sin is completely and absolutely
justified. And that, God, there is nothing we
can do to make ourselves right to be able to
stand in your presence. And yet God, when you
came to this earth, clothed yourself in frail
humanity. You revealed to us another side of
yourself. Compassion. Patience. Love. Care. Concern.
A love that would sacrifice itself on the altar
of atonement, that we'd be able to have friendship
with you. And God, we're so unworthy of that.
God, I just pray, Lord, that you would give us
strength. Help us, Jesus, to not run away from
the friendship, which is the very thing that's
going to help us in our time of weakness. but
instead, Lord, to cling to you, to call out to
you. God, if we're Christians, we've put our
faith in you, we've trusted you, and we've received
that free gift of salvation, but God, we want
to invest in that friendship now. We want to
make time, make priority. We want to be hospitable
so that, Lord, we could just say, you're comfortable.
I know you're comfortable in my life, but Lord,
it's not us that cleans the house. you're the
one who came in and cleaned it all out and then
sat down at the couch and said, let's hang out.
Lord, may we hang out with you more. Understanding
that that is the very thing that we need in the
moment of our sin. May we respond to you. In
our victories, may we share with you. In our
day -to -day, may we just... talk to you about
everything that's happening. God, to have an
open, honest friendship with you really does
change so much. We thank you, Jesus. We love
you. It's in your name we pray. Amen. All right,
church, well, let's spend a moment praising God
because he loves it. Amen.