Friendship with God
The Life of Abraham 7.0 
Genesis 18:16-33 
by Eric Stillman
August 13th, 2006

If you grew up in the church, it’s impossible not to have heard the standard children’s song, “What a friend we have in Jesus/ All our sins and griefs to bear/ What a privilege to carry/ everything to God in prayer.”  What a friend we have in Jesus… what a buddy, what a pal, what a guy to hang out with who loves us no matter what, who we can tell about our sick Aunt Lucy and know that he cares, a guy who is quick to say “ah, that’s alright” when we screw up.  A great guy who loves to give us stuff we ask for.  What a guy.  What a nice guy. 

I think that in our desire to make Christianity appealing, the Western church is quick to embrace this portrait of God as a friend, a buddy, someone who loves us and has a wonderful plan for our lives, who pleads with us to follow him and pay him some attention in our busy lives, but if we don’t, well, it’s okay – he forgives us.  The God of the Western church is often weak, docile, our buddy, our companion and helper in this world, making sure that everything goes smoothly and healing our diseases and helping us cope with our lives.  A Mr. Rogers in the sky, so to speak, just hoping that we’ll be nice and love our neighbor.  What a friend we have in Jesus. 

Now don’t get me wrong – Jesus himself is the one who suggested that we are his friends if we obey him and know him.  But is this what he meant?  That he’d be our heavenly buddy, making sure things go smoothly for us and always there when we need a shoulder to cry on or someone who needs healing?

Well, yes and no.  Surely that’s part of what he meant, that we could take our prayers and requests to him and that our relationship with him could be more than that of just a master and servant.  There is certainly a lot of beauty and truth to the song “What a friend we have in Jesus.”  But is that all there is to friendship with God?  What exactly does it mean that we are friends with God?  Why would God want us as His friends?  Why would Jesus tell us that he considers us his friends?

We’ve been looking the past 6 weeks at the life of Abraham, and using his life to explore the adventure of faith, what it means to follow God.  Today we’re going to continue looking at his life as recorded in the book of Genesis, chapter 18.  You see, Abraham is someone who was called God’s friend - Isaiah 41:8  "But you, O Israel, my servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, you descendants of Abraham my friend; James 2:23  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.

This story in Genesis 18 in particular reveals a lot to us about what it means to be God’s friend, particularly what responsibilities go along with being called a friend of God.  The adventure of Abraham will show us that friendship with God is more than just having a heavenly buddy, but that there’s something much greater and infinitely more meaningful than that.

Let’s read together the second half of Genesis 18.  Remember that in the beginning of the chapter, the Lord appeared to Abraham and Sarah along with two other mysterious men, who will turn out to be angels, and let them know that in a year they will have a son, Isaac.  Now, the Lord turns his attention to Sodom, where Abraham’s nephew Lot lives.