Who's Got Your Back?

We concluded our Manswers series at Timber Ridge on Sunday by answering the question "Who's Got Your Back?"  We talked about our need to closely examine our circle of friends and our core network based on the following truth:

Whether or not we become who God has called us to be will largely be dependent on two things:  Our faith and our friends.


If you missed the message, you can watch it online here.  To follow up with the thoughts I shared on Sunday, I wanted to share three qualities of a good friend.  If someone is going to really have your back in life, they probably need to be people who exhibit the following characteristics:

1. Sacrificial Love - In John 15, Jesus said this:  Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.  We need people in our lives who are willing to make sacrifices for us and who love us enough to look out for God's best in our life - even if it's costly.
2. Loyalty & Commitment - In Proverbs 27:6 the Bible teaches us this principle: Wounds from a friend can be trusted.  And in Proverbs 18, we read that there is a friend that sicks closer than a brother.  Personally, I'd rather have one good friend that speaks God's truth into my life and is loyal to me and trustworthy than 100 acquaintances who only tell me what I want to hear and can't be trusted to handle the difficult things in my life.  We need people who RUN TO US when the mess hits the fan, instead of run away from us.  We need people who are loyal through thick and thin.
3. Trustworthy - In James 5, the Bible tells us to confess our sins to each other and pray for one another so that we may be healed.  We need people that we can be honest and real with about the struggles we have in life.  But we need those people to know when to keep those struggles to themselves.  Here's a principle that will save you a lot of hurt & heartache in picking your inner circle of friends:  If they will talk about other people to you, then you can GUARANTEE that they are talking about you to other people.  

Life is too hard to go at it alone.  We need people who love us, are loyal to us, and can be trusted to help us through life's struggles.  We need someone who has our back.