Wise Up: Friendship

Theme verse: Proverbs 17:17

Wisdom is often embedded in a short, pithy saying; our proverb today speaks to the value of friendship in difficult life situations.

Gospel: John 16:31-33

Jesus will be abandoned by His closest friends, but Jesus is the Friend who will never abandon us.

Focus:

First week of a new sermon series on Proverbs, biblical wisdom that help shapes how we live as followers of Jesus. Today’s focus is on wisdom about our relationship with friends. We all know the experience of having/being a faithful friend in a difficult situation. We also know what it means to fail someone else or to feel abandoned. Jesus is the abandoned one who promises never to abandon us. We therefore look for ways to be faithful in the midst of difficult situations.

Reflection:

Now, the first part of that verse is pretty straight forward but the second part is not so straight forward. I, being the only girl in a family with 2 brothers, one older and one younger took that part of the verse to mean that, according to the dictionary meaning of adversity: trouble, vexed, acting against or in a contrary direction, causing harm. I thought that that’s what my brothers were born to do to me!

However, “born for adversity” is different than “born for adversity”. How’s that?

Pastor Rossow explained that the word brother was a term used for another believer in Christ, a Christian. (Yea, that’s right) Oh, that puts a different twist on this……

The very last thing he said at the end of his sermon was to repeat the verse, again: “a brother is born for adversity” and it was as if a light bulb went on inside my head.

A brother, a Christian, me… born for adversity!?