OPEN: Friendship is an elusive commodity. I have sought quotes and illustrations on this topic and found only a few observations I found to be enlightening… but the few that I did find were enlightening:
One Native American Indian Tribe described a friend as: “someone who carries my sorrows on his back.”
Someone else has observed: A real friend is one who walks in when the rest of the world walks out
One little boy gave this definition: “A person who knows us – and still likes us.”
But my favorite definition of friendship is one given by famous philosopher - Winnie the Pooh:
If you live to be a hundred,
I want to live to be a hundred minus one day,
so I never have to live without you.
APPLY: Friendship.
True friends are as precious as jewels because they are the ones that stay close beside you, when you need them the most.
Jesus said – that when you and I became Christians… we became His friends. And that got me to thinking… What exactly is a friend of God? What do friends of God do? What do you DO as a friend of God?
I. Then I remembered some other friends of God…
Exodus 33:11 tells us that when Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt, “The LORD would speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks with his friend…”
God spent time with His friends and He talked with them – people like Moses and Abraham and others. And that’s what He did with Adam and Eve. Before they sinned, God walked in the Garden with them – and He talked with them
And I believe that’s part of the reasoning behind one of the great songs of our faith. Sing it with me:
“And He walks with me, and He talks with. And He tells me I am His own. And the joy we share, as we tarry there none other has ever known.”
Remember that? It’s a beautiful song. And it tells of one of the greatest privileges we have God’s friends:
– The privilege to talk with God and know that He listens
– The privilege to have the same relationship with Him that Adam & Eve had in Garden
Other people might pray to God… but we TALK with Him –as His friends
(pause…)
Then there was the comment of Job made. Job was suffering… he was in torment. And then along come his “friends. They accuse him of having sinned. They said that his afflictions were the result of some evil that he had done.
But in Job 16:19-21 Job cries out:
“Even now my witness is in heaven; my advocate is on high. MY INTERCESSOR IS MY FRIEND as my eyes pour out tears to God; on behalf of a man he pleads with God AS A MAN PLEADS FOR HIS FRIEND.”
Job’s earthly friends were not really friends at all… But Job knew that there was somebody in heaven interceding for him. Pleading for him. And he knew that – whoever it was – this someone WAS his friend.
In Romans 8:34 Paul argued that no one could succeed in truly condemning we who were Christians because: “Christ Jesus, who died— more than that, who was raised to life— is at the right hand of God and is also INTERCEDING for us.”
Earthly friends might hurt us, betray us, belittle us or walk away from us. But not Jesus. Jesus will never leave us. He’ll never forsake us. And Jesus intercedes for us. He pleads for us.
NOW… this all goes to show that Jesus places a high priority on our friendship. He WANTS us to spend time with Him. He wants us to discuss our hopes and dreams and our problems and difficulties in life.
He wants us to do that – because that’s what friends should do. And He - as our friend - responds by interceding/ pleading for us… as a friend would intercede for a friend.
II. Now… let’s get back to my original question
What do we, as Jesus’ friends, DO?
• We know that Jesus listens to us
• We know that He wants to have us talk with Him
• We know that He intercedes for us…
o BUT WHAT DO WE DO for Him as His friends?
Jesus gives us 2 answers in our text this morning:
1st – He wants us to bear fruit (John 15:16)
TURN WITH ME TO John 15:16 “You did not choose me, but I chose you (to be my friends) and appointed you to go and bear fruit— fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name.”
So Jesus chose you as His friend… and He chose you to do something.
He chose you to bear fruit - as His friend
Now let’s think about this in the light of what friendship is all about.
A friend is someone I trust. So, think about this with me.
ILLUS: Let’s say you’re down at the supermarket and a perfect stranger comes up to you and says “Hey, my car just broke down and I need to be somewhere real soon. Is there any chance that I can borrow your car for couple of hours?” what would you say?
You wouldn’t loan your car to that stranger, would you? Of course not!
But now… what if a friend came up and explained that their car is in the shop and they desperately need to be somewhere, and they were wondering if you could loan them yours for a couple of hours. What would you say? Well, they’re your friend – aren’t they? You’ve learned to trust them… so - unless they’ve a really bad driver – you probably will loan your car.
Now, why wouldn’t you trust a stranger with your car? I mean, if they came up and asked for a dollar or two… you might give it to them. So… why not your car?
Why? Because your car is VALUABLE to you!
My point is this: I don’t trust strangers with things that are important to me, but I might trust my friends with something I consider valuable.
And what Jesus is saying here is that He has something valuable He wants to entrust to you. He has confidence in you.
III. How does He know He can trust you?
Because you’ve committed yourself to Him.
• You’ve humbled yourself before Him
• You’ve acknowledged that you’ve sinned
• You’ve said that you want Him to be the Lord of your life
• You’ve allowed yourself to be buried in the waters of Christian Baptism
You have declared by ALL THAT – that you wanted Jesus to be YOUR friend. And so, Jesus has entrusted to you something He regards as being highly valuable. His church.
How do we know He thinks the church is valuable? Because of the price Jesus paid to begin His church. Jesus suffered humiliation, torture, and death to establish it. It’s not just valuable… it’s priceless.
AND SO - because you are His friend – He has placed in your care something that has far more value than you or I can possibly imagine. And since He has trusted you with His church… He is saying that He wants you and I to bear fruit.
Now… frankly, that means more than just showing up on Sunday Mornings
o That means investing our time, talents and treasure
o It means praying for His church to succeed
o It means teaching a class
o Transporting people to Church
o Working with the youth at JAM and the Senior High teens
You could go on and on and on… and those are just a few ideas. You don’t have to do all of these, but because you’re His friend, Jesus is trusting that you will do SOMETHING to make this church of His succeed.
Stephen Dolley, Jr. once observed “A man who wants to do something will find a way; a man who doesn’t will find an excuse.”
If I am really Jesus’ friend, I WILL find a way to make His church successful. I will NEVER BE SATISFIED with excuses.
IV. Now… I’ve said there were two things that Jesus wanted of His friends.
The first was that we should bear fruit.
What’s the 2nd?
Turn with me again to John 15:11-12 “I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.”
Love one another… hmmm
Why stress that here? In fact, why is this phrase repeatedly stressed throughout the New Testament? James says that “Loving One Another” is the royal law of the Kingdom.
But if I’m Jesus friend, wouldn’t that come naturally to me?
Well… no.
You see, the problem is that even people that deeply love Jesus get sidetracked sometimes. They end up getting focused on agendas and programs that they believe are important… and forget about that which is most important to Jesus.
ILLUS: I once knew a man who was sold out for Jesus. He loved Jesus. When he’d been younger, he been in an accident in which he almost died… but miraculously he recovered and ended up being a leader in his congregation. He believed that God has saved him for a reason. And he literally plowed himself into making his little church a success.
BUT… if something happened in that church that he didn’t approve of, he could be pretty mean
He’d find ways of talking about you behind your back. He’d join with certain friends to undermine anything you wanted done. In short, he was so sold out for God’s church… that he’d end up hurting anybody that got his way.
He regarded the church as more important than the people in it.
But, there’s something wrong with that. Do you know what?
That’s right, the church can NEVER be more important than the people in it… because the church IS the people.
ILLUS: You remember the children’s rhyme that goes:
“Here is the church and here is the steeple… open the doors and here’s all the people”?
As cute as that little rhyme is… it ain’t true. The Church IS the people. You cannot bear GOOD fruit for Jesus if you forget that Jesus commanded us to love the people = Love one another
Now that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t disagree on things
It doesn’t mean that we’re not going to get upset with one another now and again
It doesn’t mean that we don’t confront and discipline one another if our fellow Christians get caught up in some form of sin.
BUT what it does mean – is that in the final analysis - because we are Jesus’ friend - we want each of our bros’ and sisters in Christ to succeed. We want them to grow up into Christ. AND We want them to know that we love them.
ILLUS: In my home, I have a wife and two kids…
Do you think we ever have disagreements?
Do you think we’re ever upset with each other?
Do you think we ever have arguments?
Yeah… we do. But we work those things out – And you know why we do that? Because we love each other - We’re a family.
And so is the church… It’s Jesus’ family. A family that Jesus has entrusted to our care
In the church the most precious thing that God has entrusted to our care… is each other.
CLOSE: We are friends of Jesus
That friendship is so important to Jesus that He listens to us, intercedes for us and has entrusted to us His most important possession.
But you can’t enjoy this type of relationship unless you first belong to Jesus…
(INVITATION.)
The others sermons in this series are:
1. Irreplaceable - Genesis 1:24-31
2. Shaped to be a Servant - Ephesians 2:3-10
3. Making God Smile - Psalm 51:15-19
4. Formed to be Friends of God - John 15:9-16
5. Adopted for a Purpose - Ephesians 1:3-14
6. A Purpose Filled Love - 1 Corinthians 13:1-13
7. Purpose Driven Worship - Romans 12:1-8
8. Purpose Driven Strength - 2 Corinthians 12:1-10
