"I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you." (John 15:15) "You must worship no other gods, for the LORD, whose very name is Jealous, is a God who is jealous about his relationship with you." (Exodus 34:14, NLT) You see I always thought God just created us to serve Him, worship Him, be in awe of Him and tremble at His feet. But that's not true. He has an innumerable number of angels and twenty four elders and other creatures for all that. God's main purpose for creating man is because He needed a friend! God Almighty, the All powerful, All crushing and yet All loving Father needed a friend - that's why He created man. The relationship which God has with man is one which He doesn't share with any other creature or being. God wants to be friends. He created us for that purpose - to fulfill His need for friendship..
Friendship is a strong word. It entails a high level of closeness, openness and some sort of compromise on both parties to keep the friendship alive. We have often wondered why God will make compromises for men like Abraham, Moses, Enoch - it is actually very simple. They were His friends. And God wants the same kind of relationship with all of us, with me, with you. We have the blessed and privilege of going into a relationship with God - a right and privilege reserved just for us.
God tried endlessly to be friends with the Israelites and He got His heart broken over and over. The Israelites could hardly fulfill their own part of the friendship. They could hardly remain exclusive to God. They would occasionally dabble into worship of other gods; and God, when He is in a relationship - He is jealous. He doesn't share His friends with satan, idols, sin or anybody or anything.
James says "Friendship with the world is enmity with God". (James 4:4). Whenever we befriend anything else, God withdraws. He wants to have us and all of us. He wants absolute and exclusive friendship. The terms of the friendship is simple: "Thou shall have no other gods" (Exodus 20:3).
God wants to be friends. As exciting as that sounds, we must become aware of the terms before we rush into that relationship. It requires that we become enemies with the world, sin, satan. As soon as we fulfill this term, God comes to us. He initiates the contacts and upgrades our security clearance from "Servants" to "Friends". Do you want that relationship? Do you want to be friends with God, He sent me to ask you this morning? As you expect God's visit this month, He wants me to find out if you are still His friend? Because God only visits His friends?