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[ Silence ] ♪ Anyone here close to me ♪ ♪ Let it be ♪ ♪ Dear Lord, let it be ♪

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♪ I am weak, but God is strong ♪ ♪ Our song ♪ ♪ Here we belong ♪ ♪ Oh, this land is mine ♪

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♪ And I will be the most unique ♪ ♪ Through this world of heartless men ♪ ♪ Here I follow the other hand ♪ ♪ Oh, Lord, we pray ♪

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♪ Oh, bless the entire world ♪ ♪ Oh, Lord, we love you ♪ ♪ Oh, Lord, we pray ♪ ♪ Dear Lord, we love you ♪

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♪ Oh, Lord, we pray ♪ ♪ Just come along with me ♪ ♪ I'll meet you in glory ♪ ♪ Anywhere you go, you'll find me ♪

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♪ It's a thousand years ♪ ♪ And it's easy now ♪ ♪ And it's easy now ♪ (upbeat piano music)

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(upbeat piano music) (upbeat piano music) (piano music) (choir vocalizing)

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(choir vocalizing) Dear Lord, let it be. Let it be. Dear Lord, let it be.

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Let it be. Let it be. Dear Lord, let it be. Amen. Amen. For those of you who have Bibles, would you turn to Psalm 25. We have been involved

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now for some time, possibly almost six months in the book of Psalms. And we come now to The 25th Psalm, while we shall be concerned with the entire Psalm, I want to lift up for our text the 14th verse, which reads, "The friendship of the Lord belongs to those who fear him, and indeed he makes them to know his covenant."

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The Living Bible paraphrase reads, "Friendship with God is reserved for those who reverence him. With them alone he shares the secrets of his promises." My dearest friend, my dearest friend, friendship is one of life's most precious possessions.

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It's like the gentle, refreshing rain that falls upon parched ground. Friendship provides moisture essential to personal growth. Friendship fertilizes our lives. Friendship strengthens, enlightens, and sustains us.

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From time to time, when one is asked to give the name of a friend who is not a member of the family, it's very interesting the names that may come immediately to mind. It's interesting to consider the names of those that we list as being among our dearest friends.

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Psalm 25 would have us consider the meaning and value of the friendship with God. This psalm, like the first psalm, is part of the wisdom teaching of the Psalter, the wisdom of the sages of yesteryears. It's what you would call an acrostic psalm.

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It's alphabetically arranged so that it may lend itself to teaching and to memorization. You know, wisdom is knowledge which has passed through the gristmill of experience. In this psalm is wisdom which is derived from the personal experience of the psalmist. It has much to teach us about life.

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It has much to tell us concerning how to live our lives in the most meaningful way. This particular psalm is an appeal to the one who is regarded as the dearest friend. It's a lament. A friend is one that you can lean on.

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A friend is one that you can cry with. As a lady was saying to one of her employees, aren't you a friend to Callie? And she said, no, we're not friends.

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So we ain't ever cried together. So a friend is one that is there not only when things are going well but when things are not going well. And a dear friend is hard to come by.

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We associate together, but we are not dear friends. We speak one with the other without being dear friends. We sit together and we work together without being dear friends.

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The psalmist here lifts up for us the meaning of divine friendship. First of all, let us consider the fact that a friend is one who responds to our needs. The dearest friend is one who responds to needs.

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He's genuinely concerned about you and about one's personal welfare. So you see, friendship involves closeness. When two persons are friends, they are very close to each other. They share intimacy.

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They know each other. And because they know each other, they understand each other, and they depend on each other. They are committed to each other. Friends have a covenant relationship.

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They promise to be faithful to each other. They trust each other. The psalmist says, "I lift up my soul to the Lord. I have put my trust in thee.

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Let me not be put to shame." You see, trust involves risk. the reason that real meaningful friendships are not developed is because we don't trust each other. And we don't trust each other because we don't want to run the risk. One

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doesn't want to be disappointed. One doesn't want to be hurt. And so rather than run the the risk of being hurt, I don't let people get too close to me. That's what we say. And so we don't have this kind of covenant relationship

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and trust that involves risk. And we seek to avoid risk by taking no risk. I remember when I was a student at Bishop College that I had a friend whose name was Marion Jackson.

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He was older than I was at the time. And he came to understand my condition and those were very difficult times. And he said, "Now Marvin, whenever you really need something, you can always come to me

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and get it. And I'll let you have up to $25." And that was a whole lot of money in those days. He was sort of one who guided me.

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And I could lean on him and I've never forgotten what he really did and how he helped me because of the risk that he took with me. And I got up to $25 and school dismissed and we both went home. He was living in Chicago and I was living in Dallas.

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I went to work that summer and worked till I got his $25 and I sent it to him. He wrote me a letter and he said, "I knew that you would send me my money." It's that kind of relationship that friends have one with the other. They not only are willing to take risks, but they keep their promises one to the other.

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Now the psalmist here has decided to take his chances with God. He has bet everything on God. In other words, he has put all his eggs in one basket and his enemies are laughing. They are saying that something is going to happen to the basket.

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He has risked all and so he's going to lose all. In his anguish of soul, the psalmist cries unto the Lord. He waits for the Lord. His enemies tell him he's wasting his time and he has waited and waited and waited.

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Have you ever waited for something to happen and it was a long time happening and you began to wonder in the course of it if it were ever going to happen at all. Well that's the way it was with the psalmist. The psalmist has put his confidence in the Lord. He is not trusting in himself. He is not boasting of self-confidence. He needs

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the Lord. As the song puts it, "If there ever were a time I needed the Lord, I I sure do need him now. He pours out his soul to the Lord and he says, "Lord, I need you for myself. I need you to help me. I need you to lift my spirit. Lord, I need you not only for myself, I need you for my enemies. I need you to show them that

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you are God and that you will not put to shame those who trust in you." That's what he's saying. Look, we're together in this situation. I wait on you and I look forward to your action. Your reputation here is at stake. Let them be ashamed who are wantonly treacherous. Now this is a prayer. It's a petition made to God. It's

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a prayer that is made in solitude. It's not a prayer made in unison where he's gathered in the sanctuary and they're all repeating a prayer together like we often engage in saying the Lord's Prayer in unison. It's not that kind of corporate prayer but here is a prayer that's made in solitude. In many of the great trials

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and the temptations that we face in life come when we are all alone. The mighty struggles we face come not when we're with a crowd but when we're alone. The thoughts that we entertain, the temptations we face when we're in the wilderness in our solitude when we are all alone. It's our garden of Gethsemane

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when we wrestle against conflicts and challenges and when we face the anguish of soul. It's in the solitude of this kind of experience that we face some of the greatest temptations. It's in the solitude many times of our sickness. If If you've ever been sick for a long period of time, people come and they stay for a while

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and they go and then you're left alone. And you turn your bed to the wall, your face to the wall, you're left in the hospital room all those hours alone. Solitude.

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Great, great crises of life come when we're in solitude. Such a time as this that one needs a friend. just a casual acquaintance but to be able to call upon the dearest friend, one who knows and responds to our needs.

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That's what the dearest friend does. In the second place, the dearest friend is a companion in all of our struggles, in all of our struggles. The dearest friend is with us no matter what may happen.

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You know, sometimes we talk about what has happened in American affairs, and how we've helped other nations, and many times after we've helped them,

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and we call upon them for help, and they aren't there. And we talk about that from a national standpoint, and we also know what that is when we have it in our personal lives,

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when we have those persons that when we find ourselves in a crisis, they are there. Some say, well, look, I'm your friend. I'll be with you through thick and thin,

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but when it gets too thick, I'm gonna thin out. Well, the dearest friend is a companion in all of our struggles. When we cannot see the way, when we look for guidance,

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When we want to know where to step, and we seek instruction as we walk in the path, we look for someone to tell us, and then there is the assurance

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that the dearest friend is there. Let's just for a moment, if you will, contrast the first Psalm with the 25th Psalm. Both of them are nuggets, so to speak,

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from the wisdom literature. The first psalm talks about the two ways, blessed is the man that walketh in the counsel of God. The man who does not walk in the counsel of the ungodly

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is the one who's blessed. He walks in the straight and narrow way because God is with him in that way and God walks with him in that way. Well, here is a man who has walked in the way.

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You get the idea many times that when you follow the first Psalm, that if you walk in this way, that all is going to be well with you. Well, when you read the 25th Psalm, well, here is a person who walks in the right way. Here is one who has decided to walk in the straight and narrow way, but he's finding

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a great deal of difficulty, great deal of hardship, great deal of disappointment and pain as he walks in that way. And that's the way life is. You decide you're going to walk with God, and as you walk with God, we find out that

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there are a lot of hardships and a lot of people we depended upon and relied in such a meaningful way, we find that they aren't really there when we need them. Well, the psalmist here looks to his dearest friend, who is the Lord, as his eternal companion. It's one thing to know the way, but it's necessary to walk in the way.

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As Dr. Carlisle Marnie often put it concerning the prophet preacher, he says, "One thing to speak the truth, but it's altogether something more to have the courage to stay after you speak the truth. So he calls on the one who is his dearest friend, the psalmist does.

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And he has the experience of knowing what it is to have fair weather friends. The prodigal son had his fair weather friends. he had plenty of money he was able to live it up and he was able to to treat his friends to whatever they wanted but when his money ran out his friends were

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gone. Well there are those who are with us when the weather is calm and peaceful but when the lightning is flashing and the thunder is roaring the torrents of rain fall all around and floods beat against our dwelling, they're not there. But here is the friend, the dearest friend, the friendship of the Lord. That

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is the kind of friendship that one has all along the way. So the psalmist goes to God, not in self-righteousness, but he goes to him in penitence. He comes seeking forgiveness. He doesn't come and say, "Now look Lord, you know I'm your servant and I've been doing everything that I ought to do." He doesn't come in that attitude. He knows that the Lord has a history of forgiveness.

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As he looks back across the years, he knows that God is in the forgiveness business and he has a history of forgiving those who err, those who stumble and fall along the way. And what he really asks for is for the privilege of participating in God's forgiveness. And that's where all of us are. We know that as God is our friend along the way, that God is in the forgiveness

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business. And really what we want from day to day is the privilege of participating in God's forgiveness. He wants his friend to do him a special favor and he really wants to separate the sins from the sinner. You know, in other words, he wants the sin to be destroyed. He wants the sins to be

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abolished, but he wants to be able to survive. You know how it is. If you've been out somewhere and you wallowed in the muck and mire and you've got your clothes dirty and they aren't worth wearing. You want to get rid of the clothes but you want to be preserved. And so really what he wants is a holy bath, a

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holy bath. That's what forgiveness represents, a holy bath to be cleansed in the power of God. And the friendship of the Lord is for those who fear him and And he makes known to them his covenant, his promises. You know, you can say some things,

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some very confidential things, very intimate things to a friend. Or some people come sometimes to a person and say, now look, don't tell anybody this.

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And they go and they tell everybody else. And you hear it time and time again. And they told it to you as if you were the only one they were going to tell. Well, a real dear friend, the dearest friend, is one that you can share your intimate thoughts.

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He knows, God knows. He knows what we think. He knows what's in our hearts. And we can talk with him.

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In other words, what it means when we have a friendship with the Lord, it means that there are certain things that God does for us, there's a certain relationship that involves not only God, but it involves us. God is our friend and we are a friend of God.

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That's what it was said of Abraham, that Abraham was the friend of God. He was a friend of God. He had an intimate relationship with God. to have an intimate relationship with God is that we are close to God, close to

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thee, close to God. You got an intimate relationship with God and when you're intimate God shares what we may call his secrets with us. He said now when he was getting ready to destroy Sodom he said, "Shall I keep this from Abraham? I'm gonna let Abraham in on this and when we are friend of God, God lets us in on the

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secrets of happiness. Friend of God. So Abraham receives the covenant, but whenever you receive the covenant, you have to wait. You know, if you're a friend of God, you wait on him. You know, he doesn't always act on our schedule. You got to confidence in him to wait. He made a promise to Abraham that through his seed

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that he would be blessed but Abraham had to wait, had to wait. God doesn't always come the time we want him to but he always comes on time we say. We have to wait and our dearest friend the Lord God Almighty we can look to him for guidance and instruction, he shows us the way and we must walk in the way that he directs. But

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as we walk in that way, we do not walk alone. And you know what that brings us to the last point here in this sermon? That when we have a relationship with God as our dearest friend we experience the most profound blessing. The most profound blessing that we may have in this life is in having friendship with God. You

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know sometimes we have to we try to have friendship with everybody else but the Lord. But to have friendship with God is to be a friend of goodness. It's to just love to do good. To have friendship with God is to have friendship with peace. It's just to be a peacemaker, always trying to create situations where there is peace. To have friendship with God is to be concerned

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about justice and freedom in our world. That's to be a friend of God. Friend of God. And that, you see, is life,

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because life is learning to accept that which is best for us. When you have friends, you're gonna be a friend to God. Your best friend is learning to accept

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that which is best for us. And you know, many times we don't know what, how to do that, or we don't do it. Sometimes people don't eat the food that's best for them. They eat everything that's against them and wonder why they're having indigestion.

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But to have friendship with God is to have a relationship to life that we are willing to accept that which is best for us. And so the psalmist speaks of the promises of God. He speaks of the covered relationship. Not merely a conditional contract

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offering rewards For obedience, but he refers to a privileged and intimate relationship offered by God To his covenant people. Oh, that's friendship at its highest and best

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Because you see Jesus is a friend of sinners. He comes to Revealed God to us in his fullness and he's a friend of sinners They criticized him because he was there mingling with the sinners. He was a friend to the unworthy To those that were cast out

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To those who were held up in disrepute Jesus is a friend of sinners and he says to his disciples, you know I don't call you any longer servants but friend and the most wonderful relationship we can have is to be a friend of the master That's the most precious possession. That's the most profound blessing.

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That's the most wonderful thing that we can say of the Eternal, "He's my friend." He's my friend. Oh, I can remember as a little boy sitting in the congregation on the testimony times that we would have, and I can remember some of the sisters getting up as well.

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First Sunday we had testimony meeting as we observed the Lord's Supper, and I can remember some who were having difficulty and struggling on all kinds of odds getting up singing the song,

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"Jesus is all the world to me, "my life, my friend." I can go to him in any condition or circumstance, and when I'm sad, he makes me glad

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because he is my friend, that he somehow walked with me in the path. He guides me in the way that I should go, and I know that he is my friend.

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He's my friend. He's my friend. Well, there's a story concerning Abraham Lincoln, that a mother took her child there,

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one of the slaves that had been freed. And she took the child to look into the coffin. And she said to the child, "Take a long look, honey, because he died for you."

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Well, when we want to really look at friendship, we need to look at the cross. and take a long look because the one who hangs there on Calvary without stretched hands nailed to the cross and

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pierced in the side is the one who died for you and for me. He's our friend. He is the one and we ought to be able to rejoice in our heart of hearts and knowing that we have friendship

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with God. As we come now to the hymn of invitation we extend the privilege of the church to accept Jesus Christ as Lord. We invite you to come. The door is open. [ Music ]

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♪ How the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming ♪ ♪ And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air ♪ ♪ Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there ♪ ♪ Oh say does that star-spangled banner yet wave ♪

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♪ O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave ♪ ♪ All around the hill and valley ♪ ♪ Praise the Lamb, be glorious ♪ ♪ O come, all ye faithful, come and enjoy ♪

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♪ The wonder of God's great blessing ♪ ♪ And there shall be ♪ ♪ And there shall be ♪ ♪ A God and Son forever ♪

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♪ All together ♪ ♪ In one place ♪ ♪ All to thee ♪ ♪ All to thee ♪

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♪ Love to live ♪ ♪ Close to you ♪ ♪ And in it ♪ ♪ I know and suffer ♪

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♪ No regret ♪ ♪ In all we give ♪ ♪ Close to you ♪ ♪ All to thee ♪

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♪ All to thee ♪ ♪ All to thee ♪ ♪ And we pray thee ♪ ♪ Thy talents unfold ♪

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♪ Only then ♪ ♪ We all will be ♪ [Music] [ Silence ]