Friendship With God

hey welcome everybody it's so good well i can't really see you because the lights just came on but it was good seeing you a few moments ago uh welcome to woodland hills uh you know just so to let you know and welcome online as well uh just to let you know uh the mask policy here is that if you are fully vaccinated masks are recommended if you are not fully vaccinated masks are required uh thank you so much for being here this is a big weekend for us this is our sort of our fall kickoff and uh the way i like to think about it i told this to mary last night it's kind of like you know when you're watching the wizard of oz and then all of a sudden poof it turns to color that's what this week is this is the week that the season turns to color and uh so so grateful to have you all here in fact we have a couple that just came up from alabama that i met this morning and i just think that's the coolest thing and so uh welcome everybody let's worship together and praise god together amen so good to see y'all if you can stand if you're able to this morning as we enter into worship come on let's put your hands together [Applause] [Music] [Applause] come on you know this song happens [Music] for who can stop the lord almighty [Music] [Music] our god is [Music] [Music] [Music] oh [Music] [Music] is [Music] [Music] is everyday [Music] [Music] who can stop the lord almighty [Music] [Applause] now come on [Music] it should be a praise right there come on [Music] is [Music] every day [Music] [Music] hallelujah it's all right to give him praise [Music] and we've been saying this all morning and it just makes sense um that this is the day that the lord has made and we should be rejoicing [Music] all right all right if i said this is the super bowl and we should rejoice and be glad in it i think there'd be a little bit more noise in this place amen hallelujah hallelujah it's been a long time it's been months since we've been able to fully fully gather in this place and i can tell you what a blessing that is amen hallelujah yeah yeah it's gonna be a few times you're gonna get to praise the lord this morning it's also been months and months of us trying to figure out how to survive and operate in this novel pandemic and i always have the words of my father in my head and he always says while we're trying to figure it out god has already worked it out all well we're trying to figure it out he's already worked it out i think god deserves a praise on that he deserves the highest praise amen and understanding that victory is already already in his hands and already belongs to jesus just and just a couple things i think that he's worked out he's allowed us to continue to worship through this pandemic he's added to this flock exponentially during this pandemic he's drawn us closer and closer to family during this pandemic and he's also moved obstacles out of our way that keep us from drawing closer and closer to him amen and so this morning as we continue worship i just really want um and this next song really speaks to that i really really want us to understand that it's already done amen and that the victory belongs to jesus the fact that you're here this morning and you're able to breathe and you're able to feel the air means that god has already won amen hallelujah so if you don't mind coming with us and singing this next song as we give god all the praise [Music] who will stand against the lord no one can no one will who will stand against our king no one can no one will [Music] victory belongs to jesus victory belongs to him [Music] victory belongs to jesus victory belongs to him her person who can [Music] who can stand against the king nobody can't no one will [Music] [Music] your victory belongs to him [Music] hey [Music] jesus [Music] [Laughter] [Music] we put our trust in you anybody trust god this morning and we put our hope in you come on [Music] [Applause] you're forever victorious [Music] [Applause] say [Music] [Music] hallelujah [Applause] hallelujah [Music] [Music] [Music] victory belongs to jesus [Music] oh [Music] [Music] victory belongs to jesus [Music] victory belongs to the jesus [Music] belongs to jesus [Music] victory belongs to jesus victory you wouldn't be here this morning if the victory did not belong to jesus hallelujah you wouldn't have breath in your body this morning if god hadn't already worked it out for you amen hallelujah listen the victory belongs to him the victory belongs to him said again the victory belongs to him the victory belongs to him [Music] no other god like our god [Music] [Music] anybody got victory this morning [Music] victory belongs to him to him [Music] the victory [Music] come on one more time [Music] hallelujah i don't know about good news but that's good news come on help us celebrate this anybody came to rejoice this morning [Music] [Music] is [Music] is [Music] [Music] [Music] don't do it again [Music] [Music] [Music] oh [Music] [Music] come on let's rejoice this morning [Music] [Music] is [Music] [Music] [Music] is [Music] is [Music] [Music] [Music] is [Music] is [Music] all right hey all right thanks you guys that was awesome all right you may be seated uh if you're just getting here my name is dan kent welcome everybody welcome online as well this is our fall kickoff like i said and wow i have a lot of announcements uh in fact i have a little cheat sheet and i've never had to do that since uh well i did use a cheat sheet when i took tests in greg boyd's apologetics class but uh no i'm just kidding of course i'm just kidding hey uh so let me just get started uh this i'm more nervous doing announcements than giving a message because there's so many little details and uh so please uh i would appreciate your prayer and support as i go through these so i don't miss anything the first thing is the refuge the refuge hey you can hear some refuge people here the refuge is our thursday night ministry and normally in non-pandemic times we get together we share a meal we sing together there's a message and then people go off to groups because of the pandemic everything went online and now we're starting to come back in person again we're not doing the food and the music and the message yet but some of the groups are meeting and so we have some groups meeting in person some groups meeting online and i really encourage you to consider this the refuge groups are very unique uh the the motto for the refuge is it's a community of grace and truth and what that means in short is that anyone who comes there you're accepted as you are but at the same time in community you grow into who god wants you to be and it's just a beautiful ministry that has blessed so many people over so many years it's it involves issue specific groups we have groups for uh relationship struggles uh sexual struggles chemical dependency struggles we have just general spiritual healing groups uh so please check that out there's a reason why people have been a part of the refuge for decades because it's just that powerful of a ministry you know there's so many things that we do that we just kind of fritter our time on and and we need that of course but consider doing something like this that can be really deeply meaningful and transformational check it out however let me say this a couple of the groups they have a limited window and you can sign up because it really is a journey and you have to be from the beginning to the end so don't delay on this check it out all of these things that i'm announcing you can find on wh church.org bulletin and i'm not going to repeat that each time the next announcement is that we also are kicking off our cultivate classes and the cultivate classes there's there's 10 classes this fall and i i got to tell you that the best thing about these classes is that they're they're led by people who have invested hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of hours studying these topics and you get to go in and you get to reap the benefits off of their work it's just it's a beautiful thing it's sort of a no-brainer why wouldn't you sign up for a class they meet online all of them are online so you can participate from anywhere so go online and sign up for a class highly recommended now fall kick-off one of the coolest things about the fall kickoff is that we get to have a picnic together so uh it's it's a catered meal it's free for those of you who are here if you're online virtual tacos are on the way so they don't taste as good but there's no calories so that's that's a good thing but listen as soon as i'm done giving announcements i'm running to go get the food so i would not recommend standing in the doorway between here in the parking lot because i gotta hurry to go do that also we will be uh having our t-shirts out there as well so make sure you get your t-shirt now we are starting a new series with the fall kickoff and the series is called the lost art of friendship and greg is really kicking us off with i think a really powerful message and i i can't wait to hear what you think of it part of the fun of this series is that we've been doing this caption contest and we we kicked it off last week and so last week we had this picture uh hopefully they'll put up there it is and and people submitted captions and i'm going to share the winning caption with you it was submitted by someone called swank and it says oh i need my glasses for this we didn't make the front page but we made a headline that's that's pretty funny that's good this is the the picture for this coming week and everybody can contribute to this if you're here in person you can make a caption contribution back in the gathering area or you can go to wh church.org captions or you can also make a contribution on our facebook page um the last thing on my list here is the offering and the offering is part of our worship it's part of the way that we all contribute and we share our resources we share our love for this ministry and so this is the time when uh we have opened for you to to consider your contributions and so i want to give you time to do that and what i want to do is i want to pray over that offering and so will you pray with me please heavenly father thank you so much for blessing us with with uh so many opportunities to connect and to live out your kingdom in so many different ways and and your kingdom it just it transcends so many different boundaries and and so many obstacles get thrown up between us and each other and uh and yet you always find a way to help us transcend those obstacles and those boundaries and i just pray that you continue to bless this ministry in jesus name amen [Music] [Applause] good morning little hills a great job announcing dan uh digital did a great job he got all the points even if he did use a cheat sheet just like in my class forgive him that point daddy should go into sales you're good at selling things he's just he's mr slick i'll tell you it's great it's really good to be here and to see all of you here and have all of you joining us online as part of our pod gregation our podcasters are part of a pod gregation uh before i get in this message uh there's a few little preliminary words that i want to share one is that as you all know this is september 12th and yesterday was september 11th and that's a significant day for us um a tragedy uh that was really is is altered in some respects uh the country it it's it was it's monumental um and about that i just want to say this that you know our hearts go out to all those who suffered a loss of a loved one uh in in this time and we need to lament that it's just a great tragedy as kingdom people however we we're to know that we're to have a love that is not confined to uh nationality and that's not based on merits um but love the way god loves and uh and so there's another dimension this tragedy and that is that it involved the the death of some young men who were just terribly terribly misguided uh our struggle is never against flesh and blood but against principalities and powers who manipulate flesh and blood to kill each other and so you know god will judge justly and god knows the degree of which they're responsible but our job is to have a heart of jesus father forgive them they don't know what they do amen and i just encourage this to have keep that kingdom vision and it's it's a scandalous vision because so much of of uh human welfare typically is bound up with nationality it's us versus them and and and the party remembering the tragedy is where we will get even or we'll get back for kingdom people our mind says different father forgive them they know not what they do okay here's the second preliminary word you know when god blesses you in some way or doesn't work in your life or works through you that's a blessing to you but it's also intended to be a blessing for others uh in in the new testament there's a premium putting putting on testimony and testifying on bearing witness to what god has done just telling your story and god uses the storytelling uh to inspire others to create faith in others to motivate others sometimes to challenge others in fact the bible is one big story book stories have power now we in the leadership of what little church are blessed by regularly hearing about stories people write to us about how you know a teaching has just opened up a new level of relationship with god or it's something about what what happened here in the ministry of o'neill's church really blessed them and they tell us that story and it's really humbling such an encouragement to hear from people all around the world about what god's doing and it's just it's beautiful we are feeling called to kind of give a megaphone to that and um so to that end we're asking people to send in stories when when god does something cool in your life especially if it's related to teaching that you applied at woodland hills church uh some insight you got you you need to testify about that and so we want you to write out your story and and send it in to us uh when god does something good it might be you know based on the recent series that we had sharing faith you know we talked about sharing faith well you have a story about how god used you as your shared faith and had a really good god glorifying outcome praise god for that share the story or maybe it's about how you showed hospitality sometime and what god did with that hospitality to a stranger how you may be listening to the spirit to go this way instead of that way and what happened as a result of that we're going to go into this series here on friendship with uh on the art lost our friendship and uh today we'll be talking about friendship with god and uh it may be that as you're you're living in that this week or next week or a month from now god does something with that well that's don't just hog the blessing you need to testify okay so if you've got a story you can make it as brief or as detailed as you want although we reserve the right to edit it if we're in whatever venue we're going to use it we want to create an archive of these and be using them in sermons and sprinkling them into announcements and things of that sort so so if if god's done something cool in your life um you can you can send that story you can either text it to thirty 651-321-3030 or you can email it to info whchurch.org all right you ready to testify are you ready to testify okay just be willing the blessing is not just for you so we're starting this new series the lost art of friendship and there's been a number of people that have commented that uh western culture in particular is right now going through something of an epidemic of loneliness i'm going to start by just kind of telling you the the felt need that drives the series epidemic of loneliness and it's pretty undeniable i'll give you a couple examples in 2017 they did this massive poll in the uk and found out that 33 percent of the people who responded identified as being uh often or always lonely and that qualifies as chronic loneliness you're often if not always lonely 33 half of those who responded who were over the age of 65 identified the television or a pet as their main company it's kind of sad as a result of that the uk uh uh carved out a new position in the government a position is called the minister of loneliness i'm not kidding that's it's now installed the minister of loneliness and and her job is this lady named tracy her job is to help people get connected to get less lonely to find ways of having meaningful connections with others america needs that too and just like the brits to be ahead of us and everything they always gotta you know they always beat us we're always following but we need our own minister of willingness because the truth is that the united states loneliness is even worse of a problem so in 1970 uh 10 of folks who responded to this survey identified as being often if not always lonely chronic loneliness by 1980 that was up to 20 by 2010 it was over 40 and now in 2021 a new study just determined that 46 of americans identify as being chronically lonely often if not always lonely that shows you that the pandemic here didn't cause the loneliness that people are feeling it did intensify it but it's primarily among those who are already lonely it intensified that loneliness but it didn't create this this epidemic that we have this has been a long time coming and there's more reason there's a ton of reasons that can be you know they go into this you can understand in terms of causation i don't try to get into all that but the pandemic this epidemic of loneliness has been a long time coming the proof of that need in america is that we don't have a minister of loneliness but we do have a new industry developing now and it's a industry of friendship coaching there are people out there who i guess are specialists on friendship and they'll coach you on how to make a friend uh what they're finding is that millennials in particular people in their 30s and 40s are just finding trouble connecting in meaningful and significant ways there's so much a part of our culture largely due to technology that works against that now the the technology of our culture works really in favor of having a lot of acquaintances no one has a problem with getting acquaintances because social media is really good at helping us do that but see the the kind of friends you get on facebook will call them friends but they're really not friends in the true sense of the term it's really religious casual acquaintances and those aren't the kind of friendships that are going to alleviate any kind of sense of loneliness you have in fact there's been quite a bit of research now that demonstrates the opposite that the more casual acquaintances that you try to keep up with the more lonely you actually feel and you can see why because the people that you're meeting there don't really know you're they're not on the inside of you you know if you unveil some stuff there uh it's kind of these are the kind of companions that are there because there's something interesting about you or there's something pleasurable about it about you or serves some kind of a purpose and it's convenient you see when the storm hits when the storm hits uh these kind of friends you're no longer there's not you're no longer uh pleasurable there's nothing you don't offer them anything it's no longer convenient it no longer serves a purpose and they're gone and then when you're on the keeping up with all these acquaintances all the time you know you get to see their perfect lives because that's what everyone puts up on facebook and all their happy families and all their happy friends and you know what the reality is but you know what the impression is and you're not in on that and so it makes you feel more lonely you don't have it you feel like you're missing it and you're on the outside it reminds me of this proverb proverbs 18 says this a man of many companions may come to ruin but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother the implication is that a true friend is one who sticks closer than a brother you can have a ton of acquaintances that may be fun it may be nice but see those aren't the friends that stick around when the storm hits when the storm hits the only kind of friend that really can minister to you to alleviate the sense of loneliness what you're going through and being on the inside the only kind of friend this is what a true friend is is the one who sticks with you through thick and thin even when your own brother your own kin bail on you the friend is there and he's with you through thick and thin so social media is good at attracting a lot of acquaintances but be careful with that uh it's not good at developing genuine friends not usually and we in fact have lost the art of friendship what it is to be really meaningfully connected with with other folks and that's what we want to be addressing here in this series and be facilitating in this series having deep lasting profound friendships that really make a difference another preliminary word here is this uh most of us are aware of the research that shows that loneliness is detrimental to your mental health i mean there's just a lot of studies on this it intensifies depression intensifies anxiety to the degree that you're chronically lonely mental health issues that you maybe are latent within you sometimes are intensified because of loneliness schizophrenia or bipolar disorder any other number of things loneliness is associated with early onset of alzheimer's and dementia of various sorts and so it wreaks havoc on our mental state but there's increasing evidence that also wreaks havoc on our physical state this kind of surprised me in 2015 there's a study that showed that that chronic loneliness was a there's a clear correlation between chronic loneliness and and chronic inflammation issues and those who have autoimmune disease of some sort you know how damaging that chronic inflammation can be it's associated with all sorts of diseases strokes cancer chronic pain there's a study in 2010 this really exhaustive study that looked at the research of 148 previous studies on the detrimental effects of loneliness and physical health and their conclusion was that being lonely suffering chronic loneliness um it has a detrimental effect on our body that's equivalent to smoking 15 cigarettes a day think about this if you're smoking 15 cigarettes a day that means you're smoking 105 a week means you're smoking 450 a month it means you're smoking 5475 a year that's not good for you and that's the kind of detrimental effect that loneliness has when it's a chronic thing what it shows all that research shows is that we were not meant we're not created it's not it's not our wiring to be alone it's an unnatural state to be isolated um in fact the first negative word said about humanity in the bible comes from genesis 2. that's when the lord says it's not good for man to be alone it's not good it's not natural that's not the way we're supposed to be we're made in the image of god and we know that god is the triune god father son and spirit god is love and and and love requires inner personality inner interpersonal relationships and god although we can't comprehend this god there's one god but that god has interpersonal relationship because god is love loving relationships father son and holy spirit and we're made in the image of that god which means relationality is as essential to us as it is to god god can't stop being triune and we can't stop being relational we're made for friends we're we're made to be known and to know others we're we're made to be loved and to love others to be accepted and to accept others that's what a friend is we're made to give help and to receive help to encourage others and to be encouraged to be to challenge others and to be challenged that's what a friend is we're created to have our life be woven into the life of others in significant ways that make a difference and that mirrors the love and the friendship of the triune god so in this series and when we don't have that excuse me when we don't have that it just wreaks havoc on our mind and our bodies and as we'll see in this series it wreaks havoc on our souls it's detrimental to our souls our relationship with god so in this series we'll address this epidemic of loneliness we'll explore what the bible has to say about this and and what church history has to say about this especially what it has to say about the role that friendships play in growing in the kingdom and growing spiritually this is what and the church tradition has been called spiritual friendships as kingdom people people who are followers of jesus um our our job is to always be seeking first the kingdom jesus teaches us that matthew 6 seek first the kingdom and to be doing that in everything we do and to be doing that in all of our relationships and so the purpose of our friendships isn't just to alleviate loneliness so that may be the thing that kind of drives us into it but from kingdom perspective the purpose of friendships is to help one another live off the kingdom and to grow in the kingdom and the church tradition has seen that it's impossible according to many authors in the church tradition it's impossible to become all you can be for god unless you're doing it in partnership with others unless there's significant friendships in the mix so we'll be unpacking all that as this series unfolds for the rest of this morning i want to talk about the most important friendship that we could possibly cultivate with the best friend we could possibly have and uh the one that we are to lean on the most when it comes to alleviating trying to alleviate that sense of loneliness that we might have and when it comes to growing in the kingdom we're leaning on this friend more than any anyone else and the one i'm talking about of course is god so the title of this message is friendship with god and have friendship with god is to have friendship with jesus because jesus is god incarnate and jesus is the one in whom our friendship with god is established so it's friendship with god i want to start with with looking at john chapter 15 something jesus said to his disciples verses 13 through 16. greater love has no man than this that a man laid down his life for his friends you are my friends if you do what i command you no longer do i call you servants no longer that but the servant doesn't know what his master is doing but in contrast to that i have called you friends for all that i have heard from my father i have made known to you okay lord open our eyes and ears to receive this word i've got a question i want to address about this passage and then i've got two observations about this passage i'd like to make the first is is is this what is up here's the question what is up with this if you obey all that i command you to you're my friend friends if you do what i command you um that doesn't sound very friendly frankly if i'm honest i mean how would you like it if i came up to you said hey you know would you be my friend and you go oh yeah i'd love to be your friend then i go okay just do everything i tell you to er who gets excited about that kind of a friendship in fact that kind of talk you're my friend if i command if you do everything i tell you to that sounds more like a master servant relationship that's the way masters talk to servants is not the way friends talk with friends so what's up with this jesus can't be meaning that that you're my friend on condition that you you you care about my commands because that would put them right into the master servant kind of relationship it's it's you obey or else but that's not the way friends talk so i don't think that's what jesus can mean here on top of that the new testament makes it very clear over and over in a myriad of different ways that our relationship with god our standing with god isn't based on what we do it's based on what god has done for us and the person of jesus christ someone say amen you're standing before god isn't based on on what you've accomplished and how smart you are how religious you are or whatever no it is based on the unfathomable love and grace of god that flows to us from calvary praise god uh our standing with god is by grace not by works unless anyone should brag about it so so you know we when you understand what jesus did for you on the cross you understand that that is what gives you unsurpassable worth we talk about that all the time here he paid an unsurpassable price for you he couldn't have gone further in order to reveal his friendship with you his love for you and uh um uh and so that means that our worth is unsurpassable which if you think about it means that there's nothing you're ever going to do however great it may be that's going to add to your worth before god you can't add to it and you can't subtract from it you have it not because of some internal merit of yours but because of who god is and what god has done for you and the person of jesus christ and when you get that that your worth is established it's settled and it's unsurpassable and you can't add to it it will collapse in your brain all achievement motivation and that's a very important thing to it so you're no longer trying to you know do something to impress god or to get points with god or something you collapse that and once you collapse this this achievement motivation which a lot of us maybe have and don't realize it but when you collapse that then you collapse your judgment mechanisms because all of our judgments are based on evaluations and and achievements and who's got more and less and we do this once you collapse this and your worth is settled now you're able to look at the world of non-judgmental eyes which means you're now able to look at the world through the eyes of love which is what god calls us how he calls us to be looking at the world not through judgment but but through love so so everything we do in the kingdom is to be done not to acquire a worth that we don't have but to express the worth that we already have amen uh we don't try to become something that we aren't already but we try to manifest who we truly are that's our motivation for doing what you do in the kingdom uh it doesn't add your worth it just expresses it so then then what if if what is up with this if that jesus is giving you if you obey all my commands there's a straightforward answer but it requires just a little bit of knowledge about greek grammar in greek specifically the kind of greek that we find in the new testament it's called coin a or common greek um and this is a little bit true in english so we don't talk this way much anymore but there's two different kinds of ifs you have an if that is a condition but there's also this if that is a consequence it's called a consequential if or i i think a better term is a descriptive if an example of the first a conditional if is if you had like a track coach who is uh telling uh his runner hey if if you qualify in the top if you if you're making the top three in this heat you'll go on to finals getting finishing the top three in this heat is the precondition for going on to the finals that's a condition lift a descriptive if would be something like if there's a sergeant military sergeant talking to a room of new recruits and the sergeant says you are a true american soldier if you love your country and represent the country well and are willing to be brave on behalf of your country you're a true soldier if you stand proud and hold your head high and blah blah blah blah blah he's not giving a formal precondition for them being american soldiers they're already been they've already been recruited but he's giving a description of what it looks like in his opinion if you're a good american soldier it's a descriptive if not a conditional if now that light i agree with those scholars who who contend that jesus is here giving a descriptive if not a conditional if he's not saying that you're my friends on the condition that you comply with all my instructions like if you miss one instruction now you're out that's more of a master servant kind of a of a mindset but he is saying that if we are friends one mark of that will be that you'll be obeying my commands that's one mark of it friendship with jesus isn't some kind of reward we get for complying with his teachings it's just what following jesus looks like it's a benefit we we we have it comes out of our relationship you might say it this way that that in friendship with jesus everything we do comes out of our relationship our friendship with with jesus it's not given to us as a precondition for entering into that friendship that has been given to us on the cross okay so that addresses this question uh what did jesus mean by that if and this leads to my two observations first notice here that jesus contrasts being a servant with being a friend no longer do i call you a servant now i'm calling you a friend and the proof that he is now transiting to a friendship mode as opposed to a servant mode is that he's he's inviting them in on the father's business he said all right everything i hear from the father i share with you he lists them inside on the father's plans because see that's what a friend does a friend is someone who invites you on the inside a friend is someone who shares with you what what they're doing in the world uh what their concerns are what their interests are what their plans and hopes and dreams are they let you on the inside a master doesn't do that with a servant the master just says servant do this and the implicit subtext is or else but see jesus doesn't just say do this and do it out of sheer authority he lets us in on the father's plans and what's going on in the world friends speak out of a relationship whereas masters speak out of authority sheer authority and what we're seeing is god wants this friendship relationship with us we're on the inside and partnering with him on the plans and schemes that he's got going on into this world that's my first observation here's the second one by saying that i no longer call you servants but now i call you friends jesus is showing us that being a friend of jesus is a more mature relationship with him than being a servant in fact in the church tradition being a friend of god for many was considered the highest form of relationship there is and it makes sense because look if you consider the triune god father-son spirit there's no master servant relationship there there's just friendship i can put it like that in fact the phrase that was used sometimes in the middle ages is instead of god is love they say god is friendship because friendship in their model was the highest form of love you could have we tend to think of the marriage couple as being the highest form that you could have and hopefully it is because you should be friends but it's the friendship that in their mind constitutes that's real love so god is friendship if that's true then we are most godly when we're relating to god as friend we're not in line with who god is when we're really we're relating to him as a master servant so we grow into we grow out of a servant mindset into this friendship model with god and um it's it it's completely transformative of course i think what's interesting about that is we often i think at least we tend to think the opposite we identify friendship with jesus sort of a child's way of relating to god because you want a nice safe buddy you know jesus for the kids and all that so you introduce him to jesus friend but when you grow up you learn that life is serious and and living out the kingdom is about serving it's about sacrifices and discipleship and submitting everything to god and it's true that walking with god and being a representative of the kingdom doesn't involve sacrifice and and and submission and uh discipleship and all the rest that's very very true see what jesus is telling us here though is that yes you we're gonna do all those things but we're not to do it with the servant mindset but we have to be with the mindset of well the authority has spoken so i've got to do this as a duty or else rather he wants us to enter into this and be motivated by the friendship we have with god the love we have with god the fellowship that we have with god it flows out of that so god calls us from this servant mindset into this friendship mindset in fact you find in different ways god calling his people towards this even in the old testament in the old testament we find a lot of depictions of god where he is the master and his people are the servants that was the kind of dominant way that people thought about god in ancient israel you have a few times but only a few times where people are called friends of god uh abraham was considered a friend of god moses spoke with with god like a friend but they're few and far betwee between on the whole people tended to see god as as the master and the the other servants and that's not surprising because throughout the ancient near eastern world which is the culture that the israelites are embedded in that's how everyone saw their relationship with god or the gods in fact there's a number of creation uh myths in these ancient cultures where they depict human beings as being created by the gods to be their slaves and so human beings were the slaves of the gods that was a common understanding here now that improves when we come to israel because the spirit of god is always working to push people in the direction of truth so it's a master servant relationship we're not just slaves but it still is the kind of dominant paradigm there and see since god's a non-coercive god who doesn't turn people into robots will not lobotomize them will not force their thinking to be aligned with truth since that's the case god has to accept people as they are with their false conceptions of him and he works within those false conceptions to lead them towards truth the way he stays engaged in this this is the god of the cross who meets us exactly where we're at and we see god doing that kind of cross work taking on the the sin of people and then taking on the image that represents the ugliness of us and you find him doing that throughout the old testament but here and there you find the spirit of god breaking through to reveal what god's true desire is the direction that god wants to be heading and that's where we learn that this master servant relationship even in the old testament wasn't the ideal that's an accommodation for example we read this in hosea chapter 2. it says on that day the lord says you will call me my husband and no longer call me my master in this old testament the lord he is revealing like i'm looking forward to the time when we get off this master servant thing because this isn't really what i want i i i there will come a point where you'll call me husband i'll call you bride and that will be our relationship now in the ancient world that is less radical than calling friend because the wife in those days was pretty much of a servant but it's it's as it's certainly a step forward in terms of intimacy and commitment and what the lord's saying is i'm looking forward to a time when my people will carry out my will on earth as it is in heaven but they'll do it not out of fear not out of just a sheer obligation not just because i said so but out of a love relationship with me out of this friendship with me of the husband and wife relationship with me he's showing the direction that he wants to be drawing people where they're they're motivated not just by him being the master and and the authority that they have to obey but rather they they love him and have a friendship with him and see that's this is what's being fulfilled in jesus no longer am i calling you servants i'm calling you friends now we still serve the lord in that sense he has capacity of master but but but you see we're not motivated by fear we're motivated by friendship and the way jesus motivates us is first of all he lays down his life for us greater no greater love than the person has in this i laid out my life for you i let him i call you friends he proves that he's a friend of us and considers us friends by laying down his life for us and that motivates us then to reciprocate and out of gratitude uh to do the same with him um jesus motivates us by by by then letting us know what the father's business is he invites us as friends to be on the inside workings here to know what god's up to in this world he gives us a big picture of of of of what's going on here to show us how why it's important for us to be living this way and carrying out these instructions he doesn't just say like a master does to a servant go and do it put up and shut up no he invites a sin here's why here's what i'm doing in this world here's what's going on here even though he doesn't use the term friend we find a good illustration of this in second corinthians the apostle paul is speaking to the church at corinth here and in this context people were questioning why paul would set aside this cushy nice job he had as a pharisee and embark on a life of hardship as a as a church planter in the kingdom why would anyone do that and some people thought he was just crazy so here's what paul says in reply he says if we are out of our mind as some say well it's for god we're crazy for god is what he's saying but if we're in our right mind which paul thinks we are it is for you we know what we're doing there's a reason for for why i did what i did christ love compels us christ's love compels us that word there means constrain it doesn't mean control some people translate it that way but god doesn't control micro control but it's it's it shows a strong sense of compulsion where we're just compelled we can hardly do otherwise given the fact that christ's love is what it is and then he adds because we are convinced that one died for all and therefore all died and he died for all so that those who live should no longer live for themselves but to live for him who died for them and was raised again and then four verses later he sums it up by saying god was in christ reconciling the world to himself not counting people's trespasses against them and he has committed to us the message of reconciliation we are therefore christ ambassadors as though god were making his appeal through us we implore you on christ's behalf be reconciled to god so why did paul make all these sacrifices give up that cushy job and he's jailed a couple times he's riot's cap and he's beaten he's thrown into prison and all the rest shipwrecked why did he do that it wasn't because he was a servant trying to impress his master that on a servant who's just trying to avoid the wrath of his master no he was compelled by the love of christ the love that christ showed towards him and the love that he has for christ because of that that that motivated him moved him on and because he was a friend of of god he was led on the inside of what god's doing in this world what what's what what what's god up to he was let in on the father's business and so part of learning what god's up to in this world is he learned that if one died for all therefore all have died that's what god's doing in this world um some sense everything that is old everything that stood in the way between us and god has been removed and that's why he goes on to say that god's not holding anyone's trespasses against them the sin question has been removed on calvary in fact paul says in colossians 2 another one of my favorite verses that says that when christ was crucified everything that was written against us everything the enemy had on us that could condemn us and die to shame us uh everything that stood between us and god and this is true for all humanity it was nailed to the cross and it was obliterated jesus prayer father forgive them they know not what they do it was answered it was answered of course it was answered because god's not holding anyone's trespasses against them and because paul is on the inside of what god's doing in this world he's a friend of god who's laid in on the father's secrets he knows that as friends we're called to be ambassadors we're called to represent god's character in the interest of the kingdom wherever we go and as ambassadors he understands that we can be the means by which people come to know the truth they discover the realization that god's not holding anything against them and to discover the realization that all the old stuff they're hanging on to that's making their life miserable they can let go of because it was taken care of on calvary and and the beauty of that good news that he gets to know and participate in was part of what motivated him i get to partner with my friend i get to partner with god in order to bring out his will on earth essence is in heaven but his motivation isn't servant servanthood his motivation is love it's compelled by the love of god and for friends that's exactly the kind of relationship that god wants with every one of us that's not a super apostle paul thing that's a common joe follow jesus thing we're all called to be ambassadors to know and to participate in our friends what our friends doing in this world to carry out his will on earth as it does in heaven you know i i think it that when you when we begin to understand god is friend and that's the highest form the most mature kind of relationship we can have with god i i just find it reframes everything never more so than this week as i've been preparing for this message uh you know we've got a ton of titles of christ and of god in scripture and every one of them evokes something different in us kind of evokes a different that can vary from individual to individual but for example we know that christ is lord of all and christ is king of all he's the lord of lords and the king of kings and we know that he's the creator of all and that's all perfectly true and wonderful needs to be celebrated but see if that's all we had to go on you know that christ was the the lord and the king and the creator that that could engender a servant mindset because you just obey kings and just obey lords and if he's the creator he owns all so you've got to submit all to him and that's that's absolutely true he is lord of lords king of kings he he owns all he has a right to all and we need to be submitting everything to him but see that could easily lead if that's all you know about about god that would lead to a a servant mindset it'd be hard to feel compelled by the love of god and the compelled by the beauty of the good news that you have to share if that's all you knew about christ he's king his lord his creator but how things change if you remember that god is first and foremost our friend the lord of lord and king of kings is our friend the creator of all is our friend it just nuances it differently the lord of all the creator of all the king of all he's a friend who who knows you and who loves you as you are just as you are because that's what true friends do he's a he's a friend the lord of lords and king of kings and creator of all is a friend who will never leave you or forsake you he promises you that because that's what a true friend is the lord of lord and king of kings he's interested in what you're interested in and he's concerned with what you're concerned with even if it's trivial because that's what friends do he's lord of lord and king of kings but he's always on your side and he wants the best for you because that's what friends do he wants to help you inspire you to heal you and to lead you and to grow you and this friend of ours this king of kings the lord of lords he loves us too much to leave us staying where we're at so he's always encouraging us motivating us influencing us to be moving in a certain direction that he knows is the best for us he's a friend who calls out the best in us he wants us to be the best version of ourselves we can possibly be which we know is always looking in in the direction of christ's likeness that because that's what a good kingdom friend does he's a friend who invites us on the inside of what he's doing in this world so we know it and we can participate in it and we have to share in the joy of this participation so we are all friends of the king we're all friends of the king because of what jesus has done for us and we're all called to carry out his will but to carry it out for the right reasons out of love out of friendship out of partnership with god yeah and the ancient near east they they actually had a uh in most of the the the nations that kind of comprised the ancient nearest there was a position in the court of the king that was called a friend of the king a friend of the king and his friend of the king was usually the best friend of the king before the king was king his best friend because he wanted somebody this is the person that's going to be his ultimate confidant his ultimate friend someone who lets on the inside of what's going on in the kingdom and and and discusses it with him and this friend then was also called to then participate however the king wanted to participate in carrying out the job of the kingdom uh the friend of the king often was the one chosen to represent the king to carry out the interests of the king uh to another emissary or any kind of meeting because he could trust this person to do it well represent my character my interest to to these other nations um and sometimes the king would have special plans that that he had to rely on someone he completely trusted to carry out and this person did this but he did this not out of just the authority of this person being his king but because he was his friend and even kings need to kick back once in a while so when there came a time for the king to take the crown off and just to hang out this is the friend he would hang out with kick back with he they enjoy each other's company and it's out of that center of friendship and that enjoyment that now this friend would carry out the king's bidding he's carrying out the bidding of the king but not just because he's king but because he loves this guy he's in relationship with this guy that's the relationship we have without the father he runs the universe let him run the universe okay he holds all things in the palm of hands let him do that but we also got to know that this transcendent god comes down to our level and wants to be our intimate friend he knows this exactly are we can trust him with everything he knows us exactly as we are and yet as it's true with any friend there shouldn't be a shame about that um no there's just maybe an invitation to help and grow in that but that's the kind of friend that we have in jesus i just find it reframes everything so i i take my dog off for a walk almost every morning and um uh when i do that i often will meditate on the verse i shared last week acts 17 where it says that in him we live and move and have our being and god we live and move and have our being because he's not far from any of us and i just like to meditate on that as i'm walking the dog and sometimes i feel led to pray for neighbors and things like that but it's kind of a mantra and i just like to see god is my environment wherever i'm going i'm swimming through an ocean of of god's love but this week as i'm thinking about this message i i altered that just a little bit and and the the word that i would recite over and over again is that in god my friend i live and move and have my being and god my friend and that just brings a dimension of intimacy that wasn't there before it's cool to think about i live in god i move everything i do i do in the context of god but when you remember that god is your friend he sticks closer than a brother god is a friend who's invited you on the inside god is a friend who loves you and wants your life to be significant has your best interest always in mind it just reframes everything i think what we forget is that god is transcendent lord of lords king of kings creator of all things he's incomprehensibly beyond anything we can imagine but as awesome and as intense as god's transcendence is it's equally awesome and intense that god is this close he comes as close to us as he is beyond us i can put it like that i think a lot of people have are more comfortable with the god who's beyond us than the god who comes close to us in fact there's some theologians who think that's dishonoring to the sovereignty of god to think that god is your friend and they actually argue against this you see it augments the glory of god but we realize that as much out there as he is that's how much he's in here the incarnation is about all about how this transcended god's come so close to us he wants to be our friend sometimes i think people are more comfortable working for an employer than they are getting intimate with a friend uh they'd rather this master servant relationship because that's then you just gotta obey the rules and you're okay but see friendships take time you have to cultivate you invite in they invite you in and there's a sharing and growing and folks that is the relationship that god wants with each and every one of us be cultivating that friendship it reframes everything so i'm going to end with this exercise okay little imaginative exercise holy spirit uh guide us as we do this and lord a minute make it something that's significant powerful i want everybody right now whether you're a pod creation or part of the congregation uh to imagine your best friend who's your best friend it may be a present person maybe a person in the past and if you've never had a best friend someone you consider that imagine one uh you just what would a best friend look like and get a clear conception of this person an image of this person think about this and i want you to pay attention to what you feel towards this best friend and why you feel this way how this friend was trustworthy and this friend accepts you and loves you you always know that even if this friend challenges you they're doing it out of love get that clear conception of that friendship there and notice what you feel there's often a warmth there when you're with a friend a true friend there's an enjoyment there friends like to hang out so just just sit in that for a second savor that friendship if it's still going on thank god for that friendship but now i want you to take all that feeling that you have as you're imagining this best friend of yours and would you simply now replace your best friend with jesus and can you begin to have the same emotions that you have with your earthly best friend can you have that with jesus because the truth is jesus he's lord of lord and king of kings but he also is friends of friends he is the best friend you could have remember that however wonderful this earthly friend has been and thank god for that but jesus is better however trustworthy they've been jesus is better uh however empathetic they are jesus is more so however selfless and gracious they vent you jesus is more so in jesus god becomes the best friend you could ever imagine without stopping being lord of lord and king of kings and creator of the universe and sovereign and all that he is your friend and like this and this friend is the one in whom you live and move and have your being what a great arrangement wherever you go every moment of your life your best friend the one we should lean to the most when it comes to alleviating our loneliness when it comes to uh growing in the kingdom he's always with us and it's good for us to imagine that sometimes jesus isn't above going shopping with you he likes he's a friend he likes to go shopping with you including amount of shopping and and when you're going about your business remember that your friend is always there and this friend wants to let you in on the father's business and maybe that this friend would would tell you hey you know what there's a person over there that really could use uh you know an encouraging word right now will you go over there if you're listening you feel the impulse and see this is what you're partnering with god to carry out as well on earth as it is in heaven and this is the kind of relationship he wants to us in the end folks this is the friend that we should go to to get all of our life and all of our worth all of our significance all of our deepest needs are met out of our friendship with god and the person of jesus christ so this week here's your assignment i want you to be cultivating this every day whatever you're thinking about god reframe it as he's also a friend yes god is sovereign lord blah blah blah but he's he's also your very best friend and try to cultivate an awareness that in your friend you live and move and have your being wherever you're going your best friend is with you be in dialogue with him and start calling it if something really opens up and and god does something great you got a story time to testify just come and send it to us and and uh god wants to use that to build faith with others to inspire the imagination of others to encourage others and sometimes to convict others let god use your your story what a friend we have in jesus amen god's your best friend okay so if you need prayer you have any need that could be addressed with prayer and if you have a need i think it could be addressed with prayer um if you're in the auditorium our prayer teams will be up front if you're online uh go to the app or the the website and you can uh join a prayer team that way don't forget that on tuesdays at 4 30 we have the muse cast where they go deeper with the sermon and then we've got these beautiful gathering groups that that meet throughout the week and so i encourage folks to get involved in that and they also discuss the message and go deeper with it and sometimes you develop really cool friendships in these things uh what else am i supposed to if you're gonna have your kids at our children's church please remember to register ahead of time so we know how many people to have back there and finally shall i remind you about the stories finally it's time to go eat so lord bless this fellowship that we have together uh those who are here and lord just bless the food and those who have prepared it and that just be a really great bonding time that we have together celebrating all that you have done at wilderness church we give you all the credit all the praise all the glory in jesus name and all god's people said and then god bless you guys thanks for tuning in thanks for coming see out in the gathering out on the lawn and let's eat

Channel: Woodland Hills

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Length: 72min 38sec (4358 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 12 2021