Friendship With God

Good evening. It's good to see you here tonight. I am confident that you will not be disappointed as Pastor Peter comes and ministers the Word of God. Peter is a friend of mine. He has served 12 years as a pastor at Grace Fellowship Church in Florence, Kentucky. That's just right over the river.

Okay. And he's the pastor of their Fort Thomas campus, which I think is just right over the river, right? Yeah. Okay. Now, Peter is the first real New Yorker that I ever met and liked. now I think he's really the first New Yorker I ever met and and what's fascinating about this is is he and I along with Pastor Brad Brandt we served in Albania together ministering the word of God counseling teaching counseling lecturing on counseling and and that's how I got to know Peter really well and I'll never forget I had I knew Peter by phone and Skype a little bit and and I hadn't met him face to face really until was it Amsterdam where we connected I don't it was Vienna that's really not important other than to say that's the first time I really met him and Brad and I Brad pastor Brad Brand who pastors down in Wheelersburg okay we just could not wait to get to this guy and find out what life was like in New York City I mean we just had tons and tons and tons of questions one of the things and and I'm telling you I really got to know this guy one of the things that shocked me is we're in Tirana, the capital of Albania, and we are surrounded by thousands of people.

We're on the street, and there's thousands of people around us. And he says, I feel so much safer now. Brad and I are like, what is wrong with you? This is awful He says oh no Oh no No no No no See when you in crowds like this and you in trouble you can yell and someone will come and help But where you guys come from where you live something could happen and no one would know.

I do not like being out there. It's like, this is bizarre. So I learned. I mean, it's just like a total different culture. And I just can never tire of asking him questions, you know? It's amazing.

He's laughing at me, but I'm just still amazed. I got to know Peter, first of all, the reason I got to know Peter was I supervised his counseling for his ACBC certification. So we spent a number of hours together on the phone talking, going over the cases he had, listening to his recordings and so forth. And that's where I first got to know Peter. And so that's how we kind of got close to begin with.

But then I had the opportunity of ministering with him, and I've heard him minister the Word of God. And I am just so thankful that he was able to come and be with us. So Peter, come and minister the Word of God, and I hope you find a warm welcome here. Thank you. Well, good evening. Thank you, Tim, for that warm, funny welcome that you look forward to greatly as you tell stories about me.

It is true that even though I have lived in northern Kentucky for now 12 years, it will be 12 years in May, but there's just still some things where you can take the kid out of the city but you can't take the city out of the kid. And I do remember that, standing in Toronto, standing around thousands of people, which is down for millions of people, and just thinking, yeah, it's just, there's people here. And my wife is from the Carolinas, and she's more used to even suburban or rural, and we just have different, it was an amazing first few years of marriage as we explored our different value systems and how we describe comfort and safety because I thought, you know, we had very different definitions of gun control.

Mine was probably some type of law, and hers was using two hands. And we would be I felt safer in numbers safer in a crowd and she would love to be in a house in the middle of nowhere with a dog and a gun And just said yeah look you all nodding All right, you win. All right, we are, this is, these are your people. So it's, it was really funny as we just got to know those different things.

But it's been really cool as I've gotten the chance to take students back from, because I did student ministry for a long time in northern Kentucky and got to take some back to New York City and talk about the different cultures and more of the similarities. We are infinitely more alike than we are not alike. We are infinitely more similar than we are dissimilar, but it makes for lots of fun and lots of good jokes.

Tim did do my ACBC supervision, which I was just telling him over dinner now. That was a phenomenal experience for me being pastor. You you need to know that your pastor is not only a great pastor, but he is a pastor's pastor. I hope you know that. You may not be aware of that if you're not a pastor, that this man pastors pastors. Not many people pastor pastors.

And he does a phenomenal job caring for my soul, not only smacking me around and counseling to making sure that I'm doing the right thing, which is really, really helpful, because nobody does that, right? No one's in that room saying, why did you do that? How come he did that? That never happens. If it's the counselee doing it, they're wrong because they're there for the help.

So no one does that. You have somebody more experienced who's telling, it's a phenomenal experience, but he was not easy by any stretch of the imagination. The man is not easy, but a phenomenal, phenomenal teacher, mentor, so much so that even though I was happy to be through it, I was kind of sad that we weren't going to have those phone calls and he wasn't going to be commenting on my cases each and every week.

When people ask me, you know, oh, I'm at the supervision stage for counseling, I say, you've got to get Tim Pazma. People leave conversations with me thinking there's only one person to do the supervision, and it's Tim Pazma. I say, well, what if he's not available? I say, well, then you probably should wait. I think there's others. I said, nope, there's probably not.

Don't believe the hype. Wait for Tim. It was a phenomenal, phenomenal experience. And serving in Albania, I want to thank you as a church because you are senders. You're senders. When you send Tim to Albania and we minister there together, it's missionaries from our church that are over there that we've sent, and they're greatly, greatly blessed by Tim's ministry.

Certainly by the way he keeps in touch with them over Skype and email but also by being there and offering the counseling training and the preaching it been a really fun it been fun to team up with him And the people overseas, the people in Albania are really, really blessed. So I just wanted to thank you for that and just say what an honor it is for me to be here today. This doesn't seem like he's there.

Maybe we, like it doesn't, I think we've got our positions wrong, Like, maybe you should be here because you're Tim Pasma, and I'm Peter LaRuffa, and I'm standing here and I'm preaching in your church. It really is an honor. It's humbling. We're sitting at lunch, at dinner rather, and he's talking about Christopher Giroux. Does that name ring a bell at all?

He apparently preached here for the conference years ago, and he's a lightweight like not at all. And Jay Adams preached at a conference like that. I'm like, oh, great. That's great. Jay Adams, it's not a big deal, right? And Christopher Giroux, who speaks more Hebrew than most Hebrews.

It is really an honor and a privilege to be here with you and to be able to open God's Word with you, which is something that I greatly look forward to doing. So, without further ado, what I would like to do before we open God's Word, just to kind of set the tone, if you will, is to call your attention to the video screen. and my good man said this might work. Hopefully this will work and we can all watch this video together.

It's about two and a half minutes. It's like vintage Christian, yeah, 80s is generous, maybe 70s, Christian amazingness. Just watch. Do I have to do this? Oh, what do I do? Just push play?

Yeah, there it is. Look at that guy. Jesus is a friend of mine. Jesus is my friend of mine. There he is. Jesus is a friend of mine.

I have a friend in Jesus. Jesus is a friend of mine. Jesus is my friend. Jesus is a friend of mine. He taught me how to live my life as it should be. He taught me how to turn my cheek when people laugh at me.

I've had friends before, and I can tell you that. He's one who will never leave your flat. Jesus is a friend of mine. He taught me how to pray and how to save my soul. He taught me how to praise my God and still play rock and roll. The music may sound different, but the message is the same.

It's just an instrument to praise his name. Jesus is a friend of mine Jesus is my friend Jesus is a friend of mine There we go Jesus is a friend of mine Jesus is a friend of mine Jesus is a friend of mine It's a musical interlude, so buckle up. Give it a minute. That's a Casio. Zap. He loves me when I'm right.

He loves me when I'm wrong. He loves me when I waste my time by writing silly songs. He loves me when I'm quiet and I have nothing to say. He'll love me when I'm perfect if I ever get that way. Wesley. Jesus is a friend of mine.

Jesus is my friend. Jesus is a friend of mine. I have a friend in Jesus. Jesus is a friend of mine. Jesus is my friend. Jesus is a friend of mine.

I have a friend in Jesus. Jesus is a friend of mine. Jesus. Jesus is a friend of mine. That's terrific, Sal. Thank you very much.

Beautiful, beautiful. Well, yeah. It's like the car wreck that you... Here, what do I do here? Just close this? All right.

It the car wreck you can look at but you have to kind of look at because you passing it And you can believe you looked so you look away and then you look back That kind of what that is Nope I all set We can do you want me just to close this or 70s, right? Or would you say 80s? That's 70s, right? Maybe late 70s. Tim? 70s?

Yeah. What's that? The leisure suit. Yeah, the leisure suit was epic. Right. So I put that up just to make everyone in the room feel a little awkward.

You know, when you kind of feel sorry for the guy up there, sorry for this guy, you don't know why he's really playing it. But because the thing that we're going to be talking about throughout this weekend, Lord willing, is friendship. And tonight's message is on what it means to be a friend of God. And spoiler alert, it's way different than what you just saw.

So rest assured, this is what I'm wearing. I'm not going to change into a leisure suit. I'm not going to sing a song. But we're going to look to God's Word in John chapter 15. So if you'd open your Bibles to the Gospel of John in chapter 15. I come here with a concern.

And that concern is the devaluation, perhaps you might say, or the cheapening of this idea of friendship. Now, I'm not attacking the people who we'll just assume, really believe that what they just did was best up there on the screen, that they did that as an act of worship. I don't know that they don't love the Lord. I'm sure that's fine. But I'm just saying that in general, when it comes to friendship, I think within our society and within the church culture, we tend to devalue it more than we realize.

For example, when some people are, you say, oh, are you two dating? They say, no, no, no, we're not. we are what? We are just friends. Just, no, we're, are you, are you, are you guys together? No, no, we are just friends. Like, there's something better you can be than friends, but no, no, no, we're not.

We're just friends. Oh, okay, downgrade, right? Or we just use it flippantly, like, yeah, I guess, I guess we're, yeah, we're friends. It's not a big deal. Yeah, that's my friend. That's my friend.

I'm not saying we have to stop and be in awe every time we say, Tim is my friend. Like, we don't need to be melodramatic over these things, but I think in general, we use it kind of flippantly, and we might have our minds more aligned with what the world thinks of friendship than what God word has to say about friendship How many friends do you have on Facebook I don even know I like I don know lots of they not my friends They not my friends. We're on Facebook, for crying out loud.

All of a sudden, friend is a verb. I think I friend him. How is that even a thing? Like, oh yeah, he friended me on Facebook. Say that again slowly. but all of a sudden like that's what I mean all we have this cheapening uh we have cheapened and devalued what it really means to be a friend and I want to make sure that it's okay if it's just oh it's just semantics for crying out loud it's just a long-winded pastor on a soapbox it's just kind of his thing don't say that don't say be friended don't say that we laughed at dinner because I ranted about uh it's a god thing apparently your pastor also ranted a little bit about it's a god thing.

Does anybody remember that? So everything's a God thing. If we say it's a God thing, I know what you mean, but then that means there's some things that aren't God things. I get it. So this is not just like my latest soapbox issue, like, oh, don't say friend. When you say friend, don't say he friended me, because that's not right.

That's not even grammatically correct. I really want us to look at the issue of friendship when it comes to our relationships with one another, but first and foremost, when it comes to our relationship with God. And I think the best place to do that is in the Gospel of John and chapter 15. And what I'm going to do is I'm going to read from verse 1 straight through, I think I'll read through verse 17.

And if you are physically able, would you stand in honor of the voice of our King as I read aloud from the Gospel of John, chapter 15. This is what the Word of God says. I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, He takes away. And every branch that does bear fruit, He prunes, that it may bear more fruit.

Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine You are the branches Whoever abides in me and I in him he it is that bears much fruit For apart from me you can do nothing If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers, and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned.

But if you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love.

These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be full. Verse 12, this is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing, but I have called you friends.

For all that I have heard from my Father, I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. These things I command you so that you will love one another. Here ends the reading of God's holy word.

May God add his blessing to us as we read it, as it is preached, and as we pray that we would hide it in our hearts that we might not sin against you, O Lord. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Please be seated. Lots to cover. I have no intention of covering the entire chapter.

I just love context. I love context. I don't want to just read the verses that we're going to be talking about. I want to back up and look ahead as well. We're going to be focusing chiefly on verses 13 and following, but let's just walk through real fast, like real fast, walk through what we see here in chapter 15 that we just read. So you can just take a look in your Bible and you can follow along with me.

This is Jesus. talking to his disciples, reminding them of the relationship that he has with them, giving us that illustration of the vine and the branches, and that apart from him, we can do nothing. He is the vine, we are the branches. And if we're disconnected from him, we're not going to bear fruit. I think one of the most important things someone ever said to me about this portion of Scripture is that we don't produce fruit, we bear fruit.

And there's a difference there. It's not up to us to produce the fruit, but if we're connected to the vine, if we are connected to Jesus Christ, if we're abiding in him, we will bear fruit. We will be connected to Christ and the life of Christ that will cause fruit to be born in our lives that we might grow, that we might glorify him. This concept of abiding, it's this Greek word, meno.

It means something that remains where it is, that continues in like a fixed state in order to endure. This is the context in which the word refers to maintaining an unbroken communion with Jesus Christ. That's what we're talking about when it comes to abiding. Maintaining an unbroken relationship with Jesus Christ. When God says, abide in me, when we read that in verse 4, we're encouraged as believers to abide in him in the fullest, the deepest, the most complete sense.

That we might have communion with God. That it might be unbroken. He sets himself up as an example in John 15 by saying, by this my father is, verse 9 rather, as the father has loved me, so I have loved you, abide in my love. Verse 10, if you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my father's commandments and abide in his love.

He's comparing our relationship with him to his relationship with our heavenly father, his father. But we'll get to that in a moment. If you look, as we read through the passage, we see the vine and the branches. This is something that I trust you're familiar with. If you're familiar with the gospel of John, take a look at verse 11. these things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.

So we look at this text, we look at this passage of Scripture and it talking about abiding in Christ it talking about doing the things that would be best for us in order to grow and then we have the why in verse 11 Jesus says, I've spoken these things to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full. Jesus experiences the joy of a relationship with the Father that is eternally unbroken. Jesus has never done anything that would cause him to be separate from his Father.

And he says, I want you to experience this joy. I want you to have this joy that would have an unbroken relationship of abiding with God. And that joy of an eternally unbroken relationship with his Father, as he continues to always do that which pleases him, he's looking to us to do as well and saying, you should do this. abide just like I abide. Verse 10, if you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my father's commandments and abide in his love.

Now, in our Western culture, if you will, particularly and especially in our American culture, we don't really, obedience and joy don't typically go hand in hand, right? When it comes to obeying, that's not usually something we think, oh, that gives me so much joy. I just love obeying, right? Especially, you know, America. No one's going to tell me what to do.

Don't tread on me. I'm going to obey. I'm going to take a gun on my own. I'm back on guns again. But the concept of obeying is not something that we think, oh, you know what? When I think of joy in Christ, when I think of unspeakable joy, when I think of a communion with God that is unbroken, you know what comes to my mind?

Obeying. People might say, reading the Word. having their quiet time, meditating on scripture, memorizing scripture, singing hymns, psalms, songs, spiritual songs, all of these things we love. They make us feel warm. They make us feel fuzzy. No one says, oh, you know, for me, I love me some obedience. Bring it on.

Tell me what I need to do to obey. Oh, let me, I got my pen out. It's kind of like, yeah, yeah, yeah. There's the New York. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Okay, I got to obey. What do I got to obey? What do I have to obey? Are you willing to do it? Yeah, like kind of. I have to, right?

I know there's a right answer there, right? Yes I willing to obey But here Jesus is telling us this brings about joy These things I spoken to you that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be full. I think even in our home, when we tell our kids to obey, it's rarely, I was just thinking about this, it's rarely with a smile usually if you're telling your kids to obey it's because they're what? not, right? so we don't just walk around and say hey, by the way, obey we don't just drop that word oh, just because, I just figured I'd say here are you done with your cereal? okay, cool, thank you, obey that doesn't happen usually if something has happened and they're not obeying so then we look at them and say hey, obey mommy obey mommy, obey daddy even in our home, which we try to be full of joy and the love of Christ, when we talk about obedience, it's rarely in this form of, no, I want you to obey.

Listen, kids. Hey, my kids are in this room. Listen, kids, I want you to obey so that your joy may be full. I'm like, alright, Dad. That's great. You're a pastor.

Awesome. It's usually corrective. Not a bad thing. We don't associate obedience with fullness of joy. And Jesus does. These things I tell you.

Verse 11. These things I have spoken to you that my joy may be in you, that your joy may be full. And just before that, he talks about commandment keeping. Obedience. Abiding in Christ involves doing what he tells us to do. I don't want my kids to obey me just because.

Remember when I said when I look at my kids and I say, obey daddy, it really is for their joy. It's in a time usually of correction. But I really do have their best interest in mind. Like I'm not just having them obey just because, because, you know, just for kicks and giggles. I figured I'd throw my weight around, just make you do that. I'm correcting or teaching or instructing or reproving or disciplining out of love.

Why? I really do have their joy in mind It not a joyful moment perhaps but I want them to have a full and joyful life in walking with the Lord. And I want them, I'm small potatoes, obeying me is small potatoes. I want them to obey our God. So when I tell my kids I want them to obey, it may not feel joyful, but their joy, their fullness of joy, Their life really is at the center of my heart and why I want them to do that.

I want them to live lives that are pleasing to the Lord. It's not unlike that with God. He has my best interest in mind, right? Romans chapter 8, if God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own son but gave him up for us all, how will he not along with him also freely give us all things? Right?

He is for me. Abiding in Christ means to maintain an unbroken communion with Jesus Christ. So the Lord's command, abide in me. And that is a command. That's not like, I really want to encourage you to abide in me. It's a command.

It's in the imperative. Verse 4 encourages genuine believers to abide in him in the fullest and deepest and most complete sense. And then we get to verse 12. Take a look at John 15 and verse 12. This is my commandment. That you love one another as I have loved you.

Now 13 says this. Greater love has no one than this than someone lay down his life for his friends. Verse 14. You are my friends if you do what I command you. Verse 15. No longer do I call you servant, for the servant does not know what his master is doing, but I have called you friends.

For all that I have heard from my Father, I have made known to you. Now, I don't know if you've noticed, I'm emphasizing a certain word. That word might be? Friends, right? Friends. Three verses in a row, here Jesus is talking about friendship.

He's saying, you know what? Greater love is no one than this and someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant is not doing what his master is doing, but I have called you friends. Three times, three verses in a row, he uses this word. Now, the Bible calls those who know and love Jesus by many names entirely. like at least 28, okay?

Believers, beloved of God, beloved brethren, the called, children of God, children of promise, children of light, sons of the resurrection, Christian, disciples, the elect, the godly, heirs of God, heirs of promise. If you have an old King James, heirs of salvation. The righteous, lights in the world, living stones, members of the body of Christ, people of God, a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession, salt of the earth, slaves of Christ, slaves of righteousness, vessels for honor, vessels of mercy, saints and a partridge in a pear tree.

There are many, many things that the Lord calls us, many different titles. And here we're introduced to another title in addition to all of those, another name, and that is this word friend. It captures this unique aspect of communion with the Lord. It's a Greek word, philos, which means a friend, an associate, he who associates familiarly with one, a companion.

So let's just kind of let our minds be blown for a minute that Jesus Christ is saying, I now call you associates. We're companions. I refer to you in a familiar manner. I call you friends. Right? We're just an associate.

That should blow our minds. It did blow their minds. It did blow their minds. And we'll look at that in a minute. Are you guys dating? No, no, no.

We're just friends, right? As we read John 15, and Jesus says, I now call you friends. Is that an upgrade or a downgrade? It's an upgrade. This is way different. This is very different from anything that they've heard.

Very different from how they would understand their relationship with Jesus and certainly with God. Now they might look back at the Old Testament, right? They probably are familiar with the Old Testament scriptures. Abraham is called the friend of God Isaiah 41 and verse 8 But you Israel my servant Jacob whom I have chosen the offspring of Abraham my friend It a good day when God refers to you verbally as his friend right That's an upgrade.

God called me his friend. God called Abraham his friend. By faith, Abraham left his country because he had a friendship with God in which he believed by faith the promises that were afar off. He embraced them, he confessed them. And later on in the book of James, we're told, James 2 and verse 22, you see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works, and the scripture was fulfilled that says Abraham believed God and was counted to him as righteousness, and he was called a friend of God.

Now, Jesus is calling his disciples a friend. at the very least perhaps they would make this cross reference to say I feel like heard this before oh yeah Abraham okay we're being associated with Abraham what about Moses Moses had friendship with God during the time of the wilderness wandering God told Moses to make him a sanctuary so he could dwell among his people. When it was built, Moses went into it and talked with God. Exodus 33 and verse 11.

Thus the Lord, can we just, let's just allow our minds to explode for just a minute if you don't mind. Exodus 33, 11. Thus the Lord used to speak to Moses face to face as a man speaks to his friend. Okay. Not a big deal, right? Thus the Lord used to speak to Moses face to face as a man speaks to his friend.

Alright. I mean, can we close in prayer now? Let's just think about that for a minute and allow our minds to just do somersaults in our skulls. Can't even picture that. Friendship. Upgrade.

It's not often in our culture that we view friendship as an upgrade. Sometimes it's a downgrade or it's kind of a net zero. Yeah, we're friends. That's not the case here in John 15. For God to refer to us as friends is a big deal Even in the Hebrew back in those Old Testament passages that word it rea it companion fellow intimate a fellow citizen another person And now the disciples in Jesus time and you and me in our time are referred to similarly as friends This is a big deal.

This is worth considering. what does it mean to you to be a friend of God hopefully more serious than Sunseed I think that's the name of that band, I use the term band loosely what does it mean to be a friend of Jesus it's a big deal so that's what we're going to look at John 15 verse 13 and following we see greater love has no one than this than someone lay down his life for his friends what does it mean to be a friend of God look at verse 14 he says this you are my friends if you do what I command you so first off Jesus' friends obey him we brought this up before we see in verse 14 that we're God's friends if we do what he commands us to do at first glance it could appear as if it's a condition of our friendship with God. Right? Well, I'll be your friend if you do what I say.

If you don't do what I say, I'm not going to be your friend. Here's God with his arms crossed. That's really mean at the playground, but God can do what he wants because he's like God. So if he was going to stand with his arms crossed and say, well, I'll be your friend if you obey me. First of all, none of us would hit the mark if that was actually a condition of friendship because we don't have perfect obedience.

Right? And then all of a sudden we would disobey God, and it's like one of us would pick up our ball and leave, and then we wouldn't be friends anymore. We're not dealing with seven-year-olds here. Let's look at this text. At first glance, it could appear as if it's a condition. It's as if God is looking down, kind of keeping score, but that's not the case at all.

Friends don't do what their friends want to earn their friendship. In fact, on any human level, that's not friendship. That's actually manipulation. It might even be abuse. If you say a relationship is based on you doing what I want. Two people are supposedly friends, but only if one person does what the other one wants, we would say something is off in that relationship.

If I was telling you about a friendship I have with my friend Dave and you guys say are you guys good friends I like yeah I mean we friends as long as I do what he wants we good friends When I want to do something different he gets really mad and he won talk to me You probably would at least think and hopefully say, that sounds a bit off. It sounds a bit off. That doesn't sound like friendship.

That sounds like, I don't know, it sounds very manipulative. that he's happy to be your friend, be your brother, come alongside you as long as you're doing what he wants, but the minute you don't, he's going to fly the coop. That doesn't sound right. Two people who are dating, one always does what the other says. One person's actions have to earn the attention of another or the intimacy of another.

That's a manipulative relationship. That's a scary relationship. That might even border on abuse in a relationship. that's not what we're talking about here just like that wouldn't be right horizontally that wouldn't be right vertically we don't earn God's friendship with our obedience just as the other examples that I brought up to you me and my friend Dave are two people perhaps dating that's not a healthy relationship keep your finger in John 15 and flip over to the book of Ephesians in chapter 2 Ephesians chapter 2 and take a look at verse 8.

You know what, let's look at verse 4. Like I said, I love context. but God being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us even when we were dead in our trespasses made us alive together with Christ by grace you have been saved and raised us up with him seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace and kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. Verse 8, for by grace you have been saved through faith.

And this is not your own doing. It is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one can boast. We don't have God's favor because of what we've done. God tells us it's literally not, verse 9, not a result of works. We can't boast. We don't boast.

You know, I've been obeying God for so long that I'm saved. I noticed that. Kind of a big deal. We don't boast in our salvation apart to boast from what God has done for us, that he changed our lives, that he made us, he brought us from death to life. We were dead in our trespasses and sins, and now we've been made alive in Christ Jesus. verse 9 not a result of works so that no one may boast but look at verse 10 for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for what say it, for what good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them God doesn't care about what I do that's like not true at all thought works don't count they don't, they count a lot.

They don't earn us salvation but they really do matter. And now instead of me trying to act in a way to earn God's favor strike up those brownie points hoping my good outweighs my bad I'm a former Roman Catholic hoping my good outweighs my bad now I know that Jesus has paid it how much? Jesus paid it some? Is that how the hymn goes? I forget. Jesus paid it.

Yeah, all. All. He's completely paid that debt, and now I live a life of worship back to God. But it's not transactional, right? We just don't get grace. I'm just convinced everything in our life is transactional.

It's just so the minute someone says, no, no, no, I don't know about you, if you go to a car lot, do we have car lots? Do people buy cars from lots up here? Car lots? Okay, good. I haven't seen any since Columbus, so I don't, I mean, maybe there are. Okay.

The guy tells you, trust me. How many of you, when a salesman says, trust me, you've just decided. You do not what? Trust him, right? Because people who have to tell you to trust them are usually not worthy of your trust. No, no, no, trust me.

Yeah that really weird I probably don trust you We don get grace If someone came up to you and said no literally free grace Someone else paid for it It all free If you anything like me you like get away No, no, seriously, this is for free. It's all free. No strings attached. It's yours. Someone else paid for it. Yeah, I got to go, pal.

I don't know. Maybe you're much more trustworthy than I am. I'm like battening down the hatches, getting away. Like, there's got to be something up with this guy. There's got to be something up with this lady who's telling me, free. We don't get grace.

We just don't get it. There's not much in our world that we can compare it to because it's not of our world. But good works do matter. We don't have to earn our salvation, but they do matter. If you go back to our text in John 15, and please do, if you look at verse 10, we have Jesus' example. If you keep my commandments, Jesus says, you will abide in my love. just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in His love.

In verse 10, Jesus is abiding in the Father's love by keeping His commandments. So we do the same. No one would ever say God the Father's relationship with Jesus Christ is contingent upon His obedience, but it is how He abides. It's how He endures. It's how He maintains an unbroken relationship with God the Father. And so when you look at verse 14 and you say, you are my friends, if you do what I command you, that's what Jesus says.

The friends of Jesus obey him. Why? Because if we don't, he'll kick us out? No. Because we're earning our way into heaven? Nope.

That's how we abide. We abide by doing the things that God commands. But look at this. it's not just that we obey, but we obey in the context of relationship. Look at the very next verse, verse 15. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing. But I have called you, there's that word again, what?

I have called you friends. This verse used to confuse the daylights out of me. Used to confuse the daylights out of me. No longer do I call you servants, but I call you friends. Then I read in like 1 Corinthians 7 and Ephesians 6, we're called the slaves of Christ. I'm thinking, did someone not, can we go to the tape?

He says we not called servants anymore and that most times in your Bibles if you reading servant or bondservant in the New Testament the word is actually slave And that not a PC term so sadly it not always translated directly But there's plenty of times in the Scriptures where we are called servants. And I'm like, did someone not hear what Jesus said in John 15? And he died, rose from the grave, went to heaven, and now we're like, seriously, let's just call each other slaves. because there's other times slaves of righteousness, right?

Paul, Romans 6 and verse 18. John 15 says we're not going to call us servants anymore. Jesus' point is not to say that we're not servants but that we're not given, watch, the rank and title of servants. And he goes on to explain it. Take a look at it in verse 15. The servant does not know what his master is doing.

Now, we are owned by God. We are his bondservant. We have gone from being slaves to slain to slaves to righteousness. John 6, 39, this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given to me. 1 Corinthians 15, 22 and following, For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive, but each in his own order, Christ the firstfruits, then it is coming those who belong to Christ.

We are owned by Christ, without apology. 1 Corinthians 6, 19 and 20, Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you have been what? Bought with a price. I'm possessed by God. I am owned by Him.

I'm His possession. 1 Corinthians 7.23, you were bought with a price to not become the bondservants of men. Suffice it to say, we are owned by God, but we're treated as friends. We are owned by God, but treated as friends in this respect. Jesus communicates with his friends. Jesus' friends obey him, and he communicates with his friends.

That's the sign of friendship. It's not obedience solely. Are servants expected to obey? Yeah. Are Jesus' friends expected to obey? Yeah.

But there's a difference, and that difference is this. Servants obey blindly. They just do the things. Do the thing. All right. Do the thing.

A good servant doesn look back at I didn How many Anybody here current or ex Okay Thank you for your service I think that I would have done that some time in the military would have been very helpful for me post-high school. I wasn't a bad kid. I was a wise guy. And I feel like from what I've learned from talking with people who've been in the military, that that probably would have lasted like nine minutes. in the military.

I wouldn't have disobeyed. I was an obedient kid, but I loved to do something and that was this. I loved to ask why. Why? So, you've been in the military. Picture this.

I'm asked to do something and I look back and I go, why? How would that have gone? Like, I've not been in the military. How would that have gone if I looked back to somebody who told me to do something and I just said, why? Not well. I probably would have done it about once.

Right? Why? Because that man is not my what? Not my what? You got it. He's not my friend.

And I'm not his servant. But I am subservient to him. And I just do the things, right? I do the things that I'm told to do. Just like a servant would do the things that they're told to do. But friends don't do this because God said so.

Just shut up and do it. Servants obey blindly, but God's friends obey with eyes wide open, knowing why and whom they are obeying. Why? Because God communicates with us. He communicates with us. we don't have just like a dozen things we're not like in some 12 step program like there's 12 things we just do just because 5 things we do just because there's not a lot of just because in the Bible God speaks very clearly the big word is the perspicuity of the scriptures that God's word can be understood rightfully understood I was thinking back to my kids Silas obeys Silas is my four year old and we thought that He, being the fourth of four children, would just kind of fall in line.

He's got three ahead of him. Three people just kind of fall in line. I'm convinced that kid thinks he's an only child. Convinced from the bottom of my heart that he thinks there's other people he lives with and that he is an only child. And my other three will attest to that, that we love him and he's just an interesting soul. In general, Silas obeys when he obeys because I said so.

Why? Because he's four. Don't sit down and explain to him a ton. Right now, it's because dad said so, because mom said so. He doesn't really understand, and he also typically doesn't say why. He's not trying to understand.

He does say no. He doesn't say why. He's not trying to understand. The one thing he wants to understand is, does this line up with what I want to do? Yes or no? That's his biggest thought. right that's the biggest thought that he has but with my older kids they still obey mostly i can reason with them they know i love them we've hopefully can i say this earned each other's trust that we can communicate and it's not just do the things it's do the things because and hopefully to varying degrees, we're not perfect parents, we're not perfect kids, nobody's perfect, we know that, we can skip all those caveats, but hopefully to varying degrees they can explain why they have to do what they do.

Why? There's a friendship, there's a relationship there. That's the difference. When Jesus says, I no longer call you servants, I call you friends. And I want you to do the things that I say to do. That's the difference.

You can do these things and you know why to do them. You're privy to the plans of the master. I communicate differently with my older children than I do with my younger children. I reason with them. We're developing a friendship. They know at least in part what I'm thinking.

What about you? As you live your lives, you make decisions each and every day. big decisions, small decisions do you feed enough on God word that you know what he thinks on the matter Does Christ the Word affect and impact the decisions you make each and every day Or is this the quiet time thing, and then you set it aside and you do the things? Do the things.

Do the things. the friendship and the relationship that I'm hopefully developing with my children hopefully they can take the why into the what but the why drives everything it's not the what if it's because I said so my kids will do it as long as I'm what? watching if it's just because I said so they're going to do it as long as I'm there and as long as I'm watching but I'm preparing to have them leave the nest at some point in their lives. And hopefully they'll do the right thing even when I'm not watching and they'll do it because they love the Lord. Hopefully.

What about you? To what degree do you know what God thinks on a matter? Does that cross your mind as you make decisions? Because I said so will get my kids to obey me as long as I'm looking. As long as I'm there. But as they grow and mature, because I said so won't cut it.

They need a solid why behind the obedience. And friends, I'm convinced more and more and more that a Sunday morning dose of God's word, even from the pastor of pastors, Tim Pasma, is not enough. And he would tell you the same thing. And I bet probably does. Do you feed on God's word six other days a week? or in any way, shape, or form consistently on your own.

If you don't, you're missing a benefit of friendship. And that benefit of friendship is knowing why behind the what. Why do I do these things? Why bother doing these things? Is that a test of the emergency broadcast system? Or should I hide in the pulpit?

Amber Alert. Those are sad. God gives us the why. He gives us his truth. He gives us his wisdom in Christ. And he does that because we more than just slaves We friends Slaves didn typically have an intimate relationship with their masters Even in situations where slaves or servants were cordial with their masters the relationship was still fine, but it typically wasn't intimate.

They didn't typically know what their masters were doing, what they were thinking. They weren't privy to goals, to purposes or plans. They just did the things. Only Abraham in the Old Testament was given the title, Friend of God. Moses spoke as a friend, face to face, but Abraham was called the friend of God. And this friend, this phrase friend, would have been set against the backdrop of what would have been going on that time in Greco-Roman times, where Roman emperors would have in their courts a very select group of people called the friends of the king.

This was the cream of the crop, the elite. a select group of people and they were called the friends of the king. And at all times, they had access to the king. At all times. Literally like they had the right to come to his bedchamber at the beginning of the day. He talked to them before he talked to his generals. He talked to them before he talked to his rulers. the friends of the king were those who had the closest and the most intimate connection with him and their title were friends we hear friends and we think oh that's nice, oh you guys are friends, that's nice the disciples heard friends in a way that is totally and completely different this was a big deal and the biggest deal here is communication.

Jesus speaks to us through his word. We can speak to God through prayer. The veil's been rent in two. We can boldly approach the throne of grace in our time of need. Friendship. Friendship.

Usually friends will say, hey, we're friends. You can call me when? Anytime. Right? You can call me anytime, like within reason. Call me anytime, but seriously, not anytime.

It gets a little annoying. Friends say, you can call me anytime. God says you can call me anytime He neither sleeps nor slumbers We can call on him anytime We can hear from him anytime Communication is the difference here We hear from God and we have access to the King at all times When you think about these things, here's what I want you to ponder as we come to the close of our time.

Do you think in your everyday life you function as a friend of God? Or is it more like a servant. As you look at how you relate to God, as you look at how often you hear from Him, speak to Him, how you commune with Him or perhaps lack communion with Him on your own, do you function as a friend of Christ? Or do you say, you know what? It's funny, I really don't know that I'm getting the benefits of friendship, the blessing of friendship, this friends of the king, this higher title, this upgrade.

I know in my heart and in my mind where I stand with the Lord, I know God's word. Functionally, I function more as a servant. I do the things. I pray before the meals. I put my money in the plate. Maybe read a little bedtime story. move on with my life.

Raise my kids well. I do my best. I'm cognizant of God. I really do love God. But there's something more than just because and just doing the things. There's friendship.

Finally, two things in closing. First, Jesus' friends obey him. Second, Jesus' friends know God's truth. There's communication. Third, it's worth noticing that Jesus chooses his friends. John 15, if you look at verse 16, Jesus seems to be pretty clear there.

You did not choose me, but I chose you. That seems pretty clear. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit. and that your fruit should abide. As I was preparing, you know, I'm a card-carrying Calvinist. or versus. If we did not choose him, he chose us. Totally true.

I get it. We could plant tulips all over the place. But here's what occurred to me. Do you choose your family? Nope. You do choose your friends.

That puts a little bit of a different spin on the fact that Jesus chose us. It doesn't take away from the fact that we were chosen from the foundation of the world. Did I get it? Yes and amen? No apology. But you know what?

Jesus also chose me as a friend, just like you choose your friends. And that's what makes friendship so special, right? There's a friend who sticks closer than a brother because you didn't pick your brother, you just shared DNA. You share a family, you didn't pick that. But then when you have a friend and you guys hang out all the time, you guys have chosen to do that, right?

Versus just being born into the same household. Jesus chooses his friends. There's something not only, we don't want to only use that in apologetics, although it's a great verse for that. There's something intimate there. He chose me. He chose his friends.

He chose his people. Just like he chose us from the foundation of the world, just like you choose your friends, he chooses to befriend us. and finally we go back to verse 13 to remember the chief thing which we were chosen to benefit from and that is this Greater love has no one than this than someone lay down his life for his friends Jesus' friends obey him, Jesus communicates with his friends, Jesus chooses his friends, and Jesus died for his friends. And he died for his friends while we were still not acting friendly. aren't you glad that Jesus didn't say, I'm going to wait until Tom gets his act together, and then I'll pay for his sins.

I'm going to wait until Jennifer acknowledges me, and all she has to do is acknowledge me. That's it. All she has to do is acknowledge me. Just give me a wave, and I'll pay the price. Greater love has no one than this, than someone lay down his life for his friends. Paul reminds us in Romans 5, for while we were what?

Still weak. At the right time, Christ died for the awesome. That's not what it says. Christ died for the ungodly. for one will scarcely die for a righteous person though perhaps for a good person one would dare to die but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us And that our hope That our hope We look at that and we really do say, what a friend.

Hallelujah, what a Savior. Hallelujah, what a friend. What about you? are you functioning as a friend let's not look at friendship as just well yeah we're friends we're cool right we're okay we're cool now we realize friendship is a bigger deal there's great benefits to being a friend of the king great benefits as we go throughout this weekend and we look at friendship from different perspectives let's realize that what we're dealing with here, it's more than just friends.

And let's look at our relationship with God, our relationships with each other, and the identity that we have in the body of Christ because of the way he laid down his life for people like you and like me. Father, we come before you grateful to be here, grateful to be alive, grateful for your word Lord we are excited to be able to hear from you throughout this time together that we have this weekend I pray Lord that you would give me clarity of thought and clarity of speech as I continue to preach what I believe you laid on my heart I pray Lord that as we reflect upon the word of God that we've heard tonight, Lord that we would not look at friendship as something that we would preface with the word just or only but that we would realize that this is an elite title. We are friends of the King with constant access.

We are in an inner circle and that's not because we brought ourselves there, but because Christ has purchased us with his blood and did that for us because we are his friends. Lord, help us to obey out of friendship. Help us to communicate to hear and to respond out of friendship. To hear God's word and to communicate to God's son out of friendship. Help us to revel in the fact that we have been chosen by God.

That Christ chose us to be his friends. And remind us, Lord, of the ultimate price that he paid for his own glory and for our good. Be with us, Lord, as we part ways now and bring us back together tomorrow, if it be your will, and to the praise and glory of your name. We pray in Christ Jesus' name. Amen.