Introduction

Before we begin today I would like everyone to take a moment to look around you and put your hand up if your best friend is here today. Now everyone switch on your mobile phones and quickly call a friend even though they are here and say the words, ‘God bless you, my friend’.

Now I would like everyone to take a moment and speak to their best friend who is here today. (Two volunteers to come to the front and we will pray)

You see while you were all chatting to your best friends, we were chatting to our best friend, Jesus. And we were asking Him if He would kindly bless you guys for being here.

In a world of mobile phones and computers with the internet, we are so blessed to be able to keep in contact and speak to our friends almost any time of the day or night. And when I was asked to prepare a four-hour lesson on the subject of Myspace I thought to myself, what on earth have I volunteered for.

Now I know all about Bebo’s because my daughter Roxanne has one of these and I have heard of Myspace but never knew anything about how it works. And according to the experts who are you guys, MySpace is an internet site that allows you to send emails, show pictures of yourself, tell a little something about yourself, what you like to do etc. And again according to the experts, almost every teenager these days has a MySpace where they can talk to their friends easier and check out other people’s profiles and do all that sort of fun stuff.

Now one of the main features of using Myspace is that you can create your own “Top 8” who is normally your closest friend. People who you know best and who know you. And your Number 1 slot is usually reserved for the person you care for the most.

Put your hand up if you have a picture of someone who is your number one best friend on Myspace. (Ask a couple of people who is it and why?) Now put your hand up if you have a picture of Jesus as your number one on your Myspace site.

You see if these sites are designed to let people know all about you, you need to ask yourself, who am I telling people is number one in my life?

If you have a picture of your boyfriend or girlfriend in that number one place, you’re telling people that they are the most important person in your life. And there’s nothing wrong with having friends and best friends, even Jesus had those, but Jesus constantly spoke to His Father in heaven and let His friends and enemies know who was most important in His life.

But who exactly is a best friend?

Let me share with you a short poem which someone wrote which I believe tells us what a best friend is.

You’re, my Friend, my companion, through good times and bad my friend, my buddy, through happy and sad, beside me you stand, beside me, you walk, you’re there to listen, you’re there to talk, with happiness, with smiles, with pain and tears, I know you’ll be there, throughout the years!

Now that’s a pretty good summary of what a best friend is. Someone who whose there for you always no matter what you’re going through in your life. Someone who walks with you everywhere you go, someone who listens and understands you and will always be there for you no matter what.

Well, that’s Jesus. Think about it, how many of you have made friends at camps and youth weekends but now you never see them anymore? Friends come and go, even best friends, but Jesus is always there for you.

One of the things which makes me happy being a Christian is the fact that I know that Jesus is my best friend because He accepts me just the way I am even with all my moods and strops. He’s my best friend because He won’t bring up all the bad things I have done in the past and throw them in my face.

That’s why Jesus has the number one place in my life. That means He’s number one over my wife and children, He’s number one over my parents and closest of friends. But the main reason Jesus is my number one in my life is because no one here would ever die for me.

“Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:7-8

Would you die for someone you love? Well in certain circumstances there’s a possibility that you would, but only if you had to.

“Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command.” John 15:13-14

But even more to the point would you die for someone you didn’t love?

I believe that most of us would say no to that question, not if we had a choice. You see Jesus had a choice, he didn’t have to die, He chose to die to save you and me.

“The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life-only to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father.” John 10:17-18

Jesus demonstrated His love and desire to have friendship with us by voluntarily dying for us. And if we are claiming to be Christians then we should be letting God know that we appreciate that friendship by doing what He says.

Because let me tell you guys, just as the song we sometimes sing says, The greatest friend you’ll ever find is on a lonely mountain. The highest high you’ll ever reach is when you kneel to pray. The brightest light you’ll ever see is when you close your eyes. Oh Lord, you are my first love, at last, I realise.

So let me ask you, is Jesus number one in your life?

If He is then you should tell Him so, because unlike most of our friends who are sometimes busy doing other things, Jesus is always ready to listen.

Knock, knock. (Who’s there?) Tank. (Tank who?) You’re welcome! Knock, knock. (Who’s there?) Canoe. (Canoe who?) Canoe come out and play? Knock, Knock. (Who’s there?) Boo. (Boo Who?) Why are you crying? Knock, Knock. (Who’s there?) Orange. (Orange Who?) Orange you glad this is my last knock, knock joke?

That’s enough knock, knock jokes, now let me ask you. Do you know how a knock, knock joke is just like a prayer? Well, the answer is simple, if you don’t go knock, knock, nothing happens.

The point is if you’re afraid to let people know that your best friend is Jesus because they might think it’s not cool, just ask Jesus to help you not to be ashamed. And if you’re not a Christian today then you can be sure that when Jesus says He wants to be friends with you, He means it, and He means to keep that promise of friendship forever. Because if I really want to go to heaven, then I really need to believe that Jesus really did die to book Myspace in heaven.

My daughter Roxanne went to see Rihanna a couple of months ago and she said it was fantastic and she came home singing her songs. But one song which she sang over and over again was Umbrella and when I think of that song, I think of God’s promise to keep that friendship alive.

You can run into my arms, It’s OK don’t be alarmed Come here to me, There’s no distance in between our love so go on and let the rain pour, I’ll be all you need and more because when the sun shines we’ll shine together, told you I’ll be here forever Said I’ll always be your friend, Took an oath, I’mma stick it out ’til the end Now that it’s raining more than ever know that we’ll still have each other You can stand under my umbrella.

Jesus says when you laugh, we will laugh together, when you cry, we will cry together. When you hurt, we will hurt together.

“For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are-yet was without sin.” Hebrews 4:15

Don’t you want a best friend who understands pain? Don’t you want a best friend who understands rejection? Don’t you want a best friend who understands what it’s like when no one wants to be your friend because you follow God? Because God even before the earth was created God shouted out from heaven and said, ‘I want that friendship so much with you’.

And just like Milk Ink says, I would walk on water, just to be with you, Walk on water, just to be with you Split the ocean, cross the sea, Walk on water, if you believe.

And so if you do believe that, then let people know when they visit your Myspace that Jesus is number one in your life.

And remember Thomas didn’t say to Jesus after Jesus rose from the dead in John 20:28, ‘You are My Lord and Myspace’, he said, ‘you are my Lord and my God.’

After that occasion, Thomas wasn’t ashamed to tell people exactly what Jesus meant to him, and you shouldn’t either.

Now if Jesus is going to be your number one best friend in life, what about the other seven places? You know ask yourself; is there anything on your Myspace that indicates that you’re even a Christian?

One of my favourite films is Shrek, and I just love the way that the two most unlikeliest of characters become good friends with each other. Shrek is a green ogre with some serious people issues and likes to be alone where as Donkey just loves being around people because he just loves talking. And so the two of them end up teaming up together on an adventure to rescue Princess Fiona.

And that’s one of the blessings about being a Christian; God brings together the unlikeliest of people to become friends. But God doesn’t bring friends together just for the sake of it because we too are on an adventure together. We’re all trying to get to heaven and we want to take as many of our friends as possible with us.

I heard a story about an elderly woman who was on a busy street corner confused and frightened to cross the road because of the heavy traffic. Finally, a gentleman came up to her and asked if he could cross the street with her. Gratefully she took his arm but grew progressively more alarmed as he zigzagged randomly across the street, to the blare of horns and screech of locked brakes. Finally, on the opposite side of the road, she said angrily, “You almost got us killed! You walk like you’re blind.” “I am,” he replied. “That’s why I asked if I could cross with you.”

And the point of that story is to remind you to be very careful who you’re going on that adventure with. Because if your friends are leading you in the wrong direction then you need to take Jesus’ advice when He said to the Pharisees of His day.

“Leave them; they are blind guides. If a blind man leads a blind man, both will fall into a pit.” Matthew 15:14

Now I know all about this, I didn’t become a Christian until I was thirty years old and before I became a Christian I was involved in all sorts of ungodly things. But a friend of mine came to me one day and asked me a question which was one of the turning points in my life.

He asked me to take a close look at all my friends and name one person who wasn’t involved with drugs. You know what, I couldn’t name one and that concerned me a lot. Now I’m not just blaming all my friends at that time for me taking drugs and getting drunk four nights a week, I have to take some responsibility for my actions.

But you guys need to know and understand the words of Paul.

“Bad company corrupts good character.” 1 Corinthians 15:33

My point is you need to ask yourself a similar question, take a close look at your top eight friends on Myspace and ask yourself are any of them Christians?

Now please don’t misunderstand what I’m saying today, I’m not saying if you have friends who aren’t Christians you should just dump them, I’m not saying that. What I am saying is be very careful who your friends are because if Jesus is number one in your life, then your other friends who aren’t Christians may well challenge you to make Jesus number two.

And before you know what’s happened, your getting involved in all sorts of ungodly things and suddenly Jesus isn’t even mentioned in your Myspace.

(Ask for seven volunteers, get a ball of string, and get them to tie it around their waists) (Ask the audience for examples of things which can get us tied up with the wrong people)

Now as you can see these guys are pretty well tied up at the moment and if I were to ask one of them to come over to me, they can’t because they are tied up with their friends. You see it’s very difficult to get out of a friendship with the wrong people because you feel pressured into staying with them.

You don’t want them to think that you’re a wimp because you don’t want to have a drink and get drunk with them. You don’t want them to think that you’re scared to try out some drug for the first time. You don’t want them to know that you believe that looking at pornographic pictures is not cool. You don’t want them to know that you don’t like crude and racist jokes.

And so because of all that pressure to fit in, you end up being tangled up even more with the wrong people, moving further and further away from God. Well, guys, there is help available, the same person who helped me can help you and His Name is Jesus Christ.

And when Jesus becomes your number one and He knows that you want your top eight to be the kind of friends who are not going to tie you up with all sorts of ungodly things.

He will help you cut loose and He helps you get away from those so-called friends who are getting you tied up in all the wrong things in life. (Cut the string from volunteers) Make Jesus your number one and be careful who you place as your top eight in Myspace.

God bless and thanks for taking the time to grow in your understanding of the Scriptures.