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As we sing: Count your blessings, let us think of our friends and thank God for them.
Scripture Reading: Ecclesiastes Chapter 4
Two are better than one because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall one will lift the other up but woe to the one who is alone and falls and doesn’t have another to help. Again if two lie together they keep warm but how can one keep warm alone? And though one might prevail against another, two will withstand one. A threefold cord is not quickly broken.
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As we go into a time of prayer let us sing with a thankful heart: What A Friend
Please pray this prayer with me, putting in the name/names of those who are you love and care for.
Lord, I give you (name) and thank you for them. I thank you for everything that they are And for all their gifts and talents. I thank you for the many things that they have given to others And for all the kindness that they have shown me. Lord, at the beginning of time You breathed Your life into creation May you breathe Your life into them now So that each step they take is filled with Your faith Each thought they think is filled with Your hope and each moment they live is filled with Your love. May they fully know Your life And fully live in Your love This day and every day. Amen
Dear Heavenly Father, You give good gifts to Your children, and friendship is one of the very best. Thank You for my friends. Friends who encourages me, sharpens me, and understands me in a way that many do not. May our friendships bring You glory as we strengthen each other for the Kingdom work to which You’ve called each of us.
It’s in the Name of my Saviour Jesus Christ I pray. Amen.
Let us share together in the Lords Prayer
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name; thy kingdom come; thy will be done; on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen.
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Every time we face problems, every time we are hurt full of anxiety our friend Jesus
brings so many blessing into our lives and we thank him for them. Let us place everything and everyone in his care and sing with devotion: Majesty, Worship his Majesty.
In loving kindness Jesus came and He Lifted Me
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Before we go to the word let us listen to the International Staff Songsters sing: You Love Me
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Friends
Let’s face it, people can be a pain in the neck, can’t they? And one of the things that can happen is that we isolate ourselves. We can be surrounded by lots of people, but we isolate ourselves emotionally. And yet the truth is that none of us is an island. None of us can do it on our own. And when we try living that way, it saps our strength. Let me ask this, what if friends can make us stronger?
There are many things that I’m not in this life; I’m no D.I.Y person. I can’t contemplate anything more complex than flat pack furniture and I struggle at that. I remember seeing the Humber Bridge for the first time and thinking, “how on earth did they build that?” I mean where would you start? How would you dream up such a thing that it were even possible and then how would you design it? Where would you sink the first pylon?
It’s totally inconceivable to me how they do those things. It stretches over the Humber for 2.22Km. Just one cable that holds the road up weighs 5,500 tonnes. I’ve seen a few photo’s of the bridge being built and it looks quite uncanny because you have like half a bridge reaching out from a pylon on one side of the shore and half a bridge reaching out from the other shore and eventually the two meet in the middle but before they do, the whole thing looks really lopsided and you have to wonder to yourself, “How come the two bits didn’t just topple over and fall into the water below. Then you listen to the experts and they tell you, the strength of the structure comes from all aspects of the bridge, from the concrete pylons to the cables stretching all over the bridge working together to give it stability and strength.
We are thinking about friendship this morning, and I’ve been sharing with you this whole thing about the strength of this amazing bridge where every aspect of the bridge works together to make it strong and one of the key things about friendship is that it makes each one of us stronger than we could possibly be on our own.
Let’s look at Ecclesiastes chapter 4 again.
Two are better than one because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall one will lift the other up but woe to the one who is alone and falls and doesn’t have another to help. Again if two lie together they keep warm but how can one keep warm alone? And though one might prevail against another, two will withstand one. A threefold cord is not quickly broken.
God say’s that two are much better than one, why? Because firstly they have a good reward for their toil, in other words, there’s a great satisfaction in doing stuff together and achieving things together. But secondly because two are stronger than one, if one falls over then the other can lift him up but woe to the one who is alone and falls and doesn’t have another to help. How often do we get it wrong? How often do we run out of steam, or we find ourselves bleeding on the ground without even the strength to get up again? Right in that place where we feel alone, we need a friend. A friend in need is a friend in deed. If we’re attacked, one may prevail against the attacker but two will probably withstand him. It’s pretty simple logic isn’t it. I love how God finishes off this teaching and say’s “A threefold cord is not quickly broken.”
If you’re like me when reading scripture, I stop, think and then sometimes say, hang on a minute, what. You see, in our scripture reading this morning, God was first talking about one and then he said, two is better than one’ but where did this third one come from? Well, here’s how I understand it, I think God is introducing Himself into our friendships and relationships. Two’s great. Two’s very good, but put God into the friendship, that’s absolutely stunning, it’s the strongest of all the three options.
When you’re weak, I can be strong for you and vice versa, and when we’re both a bit frayed at the edges God can hold things together for us in a way that only He can. Friends make us stronger and when we introduce God into that friendship, when we forgive the way He wants us to, when we humble ourselves and sacrifice the way He calls us to, when we let Him be the Lord of this friendship, then that is a friendship that cannot be easily broken.
It’s like those metal bars on the Humber Bridge, with them in place you can build something that looks incredible, strong and powerful.
Friends make each other strong, and in Christ the end result is so much greater than the sum of the parts. That’s the point. We need each other.
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God has brought so many blessing into our lives and we thank him for them. Let us place everything and everyone in his care and sing with devotion: Majesty, worship his Majesty.
The Lord bless Thee and keep thee
The make his face shine upon thee
And be gracious unto thee
The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee
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