Friends. Who needs them? Well in truth, we all do! It’s good to have friends. Friends who will be by your side through the thick and thin. But sometimes they let us down. Think of Job and how his friends treated him, or his wife for that matter. “My breath is strange to my wife, and I am a stench to the children of my own mother. Even young children despise me; when I rise they talk against me. All my intimate friends abhor me, and those whom I loved have turned against me.” (Job 19:17-19) and yet in Scripture we find, “A man of many companions may come to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.” (Proverbs 18:24) Who is that friend and who are we supposed to be friends with? John ends his 3rd letter with: “Peace be to you. The friends greet you. Greet the friends, each by name.” (3 John 1:15) There is no greater friend than to be friends with Jesus, and his bride, the church. Paul had both, I hope each one here this morning can say the same.