Touré Roberts - A Faithful Friend

Proverbs chapter 27, verse 6—I love it! Oh, I love this verse. Such a profound verse! It says, «Faithful are the wounds of a friend.» Mm-hmm, they’re going to put it up there. Proverbs 27:6! I love this! Look at these words; the poetry is beautiful: «Faithful are the wounds of a friend, but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful.» Isn’t that beautiful? Faithful! I love— I love that! Faithful are the wounds of a friend. The wounds of a friend seem almost oxymoronic—faithful wounds. That word «faithful» is a Hebrew term, and the underlying root word there means «to build up.» So when God wants to build you up, He’ll use a faithful friend, and that faithful friend will wound you.

Hey, look at this! Look at that juxtaposed against, «But the kisses of an enemy are deceitful.» So my enemy kisses me, while my friend wounds me. This made me think of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is that faithful friend who will convict you, and sometimes that conviction feels like a wound. In fact, most of the time—if it’s real conviction—it feels like a wound. The reason it hurts a little is because, let’s be honest, you know you’re not perfect. But some of you in here may think you’re close to it, right? Especially when you start going to church and cut out some of the things you used to do. You know you still have some work to do, but you feel like you’re doing pretty well. Let’s just be honest; two or three of you feel like you have it pretty much together now.

Now see, the Holy Spirit will convict you about things that you won’t confront about yourself. The Holy Spirit sees you more accurately than you see yourself. I need the Holy Spirit because I’m not going to convict myself at the level the Holy Spirit does. I will justify myself. I’ll call it things like, «That’s just my personality.» Come on, somebody—"That’s just how He made me. Mean? Rude? That’s just how I am!» Look, no, no! Here it is: God knows my heart, and He’s not okay with me being mean.

So we need conviction. We need God because God tells us straight up. Particularly when you start walking with the Lord—even sometimes when you don’t walk with the Lord—everyone has a little sprinkle of self-righteousness in them, just a little pinch, like Grandma’s cooking. You know what? When Grandma gets the seasoning out, you… no? Y’all don’t know about that? Okay.

All right, just picture serious seasoning! Seriously, you’ve ever been to New Orleans? I’m sorry, men, I can’t do this; my wife is my filter! But let me just say, since it’s Essence weekend, okay? If you ever eat in New Orleans, the food is so good it’s like someone’s grandma is in the kitchen, and when nobody’s looking, she just reaches into her bra and pulls out this little spice and just… I’m sorry; I’m tired!

But all of us sometimes have a little sprinkle of self-righteousness in us, and we won’t convict ourselves like God would. God will show us things that we are okay with, that we will tolerate. We’re comfortable with it, right? We don’t confront ourselves about that area, and God is saying, «I’ve got to deal with that.» Here’s something interesting about conviction and why you have to pay attention to it: God convicts us about certain things at certain times.

Here’s what I mean: If the Holy Spirit’s job is to convict us of sin—and it is, you can find that in John 16—then none of us are without sin. The real version of us is good, but we aren’t. Which means that if the Holy Spirit were to convict us of all sin all the time, He’d be convicting us all day! Therefore, He doesn’t convict us of all our issues all the time, which means that He is very selective about when He convicts. So we have to pay attention to the timing and the issue of the conviction.

For this reason, if God is highlighting something, it means that there could be an expiration on the grace for that thing. Can I talk to you like that for a second? Because He doesn’t convict us all the time, but every once in a while He’ll be like, «All right, when you were a child, you thought as a child, you understood as a child, you acted like a child. But when you became a man, it’s time to put away childish things.»

I feel that for some of you. Oftentimes, there is grace—there’s always grace—but sometimes when God knows, «Hey, if you don’t make the shift now, you’re going to miss a critical opportunity for transformation,» can I speak to you like this? I promise this is positive; conviction is a gift. It would not be love if God didn’t do anything about it, just letting you know. «Man, she has to make the shift now; she’s going to miss that opportunity. She’s got to get these things in order.»

Hey—because it was okay for things not to be in order before, but I’m getting ready to bring a blessing that necessitates your alignment. So I’ve got to convict you, and sometimes I have to bring the conviction strong because I want you to really get it.