July 9
1 Chron 7:1-8:40 | PS 7:1-17 | Prov 18:22 | Acts 27:1-20
Chuck Swindoll shared this story on friendship, "Out of the furnaces of war come many true stories of sacrificial friendship. One such story tells of two friends in World War I, who were inseparable. They had enlisted together, trained together, were shipped overseas together, and fought side-by-side in the trenches. During an attack, one of the men was critically wounded in a field filled with barbed wire obstacles, and he was unable to crawl back to his foxhole. The entire area was under a withering crossfire, and it was suicidal to try to reach him. Yet his friend decided to try. Before he could get out of the trench, his sergeant yanked him back inside and ordered him not to go. "It's too late. You can't do him any good, and you'll only get yourself killed." A few minutes later, the officer turned his back, and instantly the man was gone after his friend. A few minutes later, he staggered back, mortally wounded, with his friend, now dead, in his arms. The sergeant was was both angry and deeply moved. "What a waste," he blurted out. "He's dead and you're dying. It just wasn't worth it." With almost his last breath, the dying man replied, "Oh, yes, it was, Sarge. When I got to him, the only thing he said was, 'I knew you'd come, Jim!" One of the true marks of a friend is that he is there when there is every reason for him not to be, when to be there is sacrificially costly. As Proverbs 17:17 puts it, "A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity."
It is easy to quickly read past Acts 27:2, "So, entering a ship of Adramyttium, we put to sea. meaning to sail along the coasts of Asia. Aristarchus, a Macedonian of Thessalonica, was with us." The words we and us, means that along with Paul and Aristarchus was Luke. Interestingly, both of these men were not prisoners. Neither of them had any reason to go to Rome. They simply were Paul's friends. They loved him so much, that forsaking the dangers that lie ahead, they embarked with the prisoner, Paul. We read in John 13:34-35, "A new command I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another." We also read in John 15:12-13, "This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends." Later, when Paul is imprisoned for the second time in Rome, and his death was imminent, we read in 2 Timothy 4:9-11, "Be diligent to come to me quickly; for Demas has forsaken me, having loved this present world, and has departed for Thessalonica - Crescens for Galatia, Titus for Dalmatia. Only Luke is with me....". Luke, despite the cost, never left Paul's side.
We read in Hebrews 13:1-3, "Let brotherly love continue, Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some have unwittingly entertained angels. Remember the prisoners as if chained with them - those who are mistreated - since you yourselves are in the body also." As great an example of friendship that Luke was, there is no better example than our Savior, Jesus Christ. Our Messiah, unselfishly went to the cross, not for His own sins, since He never sinned. No He went to the cross, for us, His friends, so that we would have the ability to experience eternity with Him. We read in John 15:15, "No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you." Two questions are, to whom are we willing to display this level of friendship, and which friends are willing to display this level to us. We banter around the term friend, but many are friends of proximity, or friends of convenience. Many would not be willing to go out of their way for a friend. How many like to state the number of friends that they have on social media, many of whom they have never seen and never will. God has called us to a friendship which is so much higher. May we display the sacrificial love and friendship that Jesus displayed. May we show the world what it means to love others more than ourselves. This is how we will stand out from the rest of the world.
Messages from Pastor Lloyd Pulley: