Friendship with Jesus

Let’s affirm the word!

Our series on Carry Your Love doesn’t seem that flash or interesting.

But God’s Love is the answer to all of the world’s problems.

And so if I want to see the world around me change, I need to carry God’s Love!

I believe the key to carrying God’s love is our friendship with Jesus.

Who here has a friend in their life?

Who here is grateful for their friend?

Turn to your friend and let them know you love them.

Who here would do a lot things to help their friend if they were in trouble?

The beauty of a close friendship is that you can count on each other no matter what and you know you have each other’s backs for life!

Story of my best friend Elijah.

When I’m down, he’s there to cheer me up.

When I need someone to chat to, he’s there to listen.

When I’m stuck, he’s there to help me.

On the other hand, there are people who say they’re your friend, yet they don’t act like a friend…

Story of my friends writing a fake formal list and posting it online.

They didn’t help me at all… no girl in SA wanted to go near me.

Sounds like Jordy’s love life.

They said I’m their friend, yet they didn’t honour me as their friend.

And sometimes we can do the same when it comes to our friendship with Jesus.

Who would say that Jesus is your friend?

A lot of us can treat Jesus like that awkward kid in school that we only want to hang out with when nobody is looking…

We become afraid or timid to let others know about Him.

Which is crazy, because Jesus is the only One who can save them.

He may not be the friend people want, but He’s the friend people need.

Without Him, there’s only one direction we’re heading towards in life…

Oswald Chambers "The dearest friend on earth is a mere shadow compared to Jesus Christ."

I’ve had many close friends that have turned away from me, but Jesus never has!

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Interestingly, the bible tells us about some people who called themselves a friend of Jesus, but acted very different.

During the Last Supper, Jesus’ final meal with His closest friends, He knew that one of His friends would betray Him and the others would run away from Him before He went to the cross.

John 13 tells us about the Last Supper, and how Jesus references Psalms 41:9 NIV,

“Even my close friend, someone I trusted, one who shared my bread, has turned against me.”

That close friend would be Judas Iscariot, who got Jesus arrested for 30 pieces of silver.

He sold his own friend for money.

30 pieces of silver was the price for a slave’s life (Exodus 21:32).

Essentially, Jesus, the Son of God, was valued at the price of a slave by his own close friend.

And then Peter promises Jesus that he’ll never leave Him, to the point he would die for Him…

John 13:36-38 NIV,

“Simon Peter asked him, “Lord, where are you going?” Jesus replied, “Where I am going, you cannot follow now, but you will follow later.” Peter asked, “Lord, why can’t I follow you now? I will lay down my life for you.” Then Jesus answered, “Will you really lay down your life for me? Very truly I tell you, before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times!”

Then Peter denies Jesus three seperate times.

We read this and we’re like ‘Petey boy, what are you doing… you’re a bad friend… Jesus is my guy, I would never turn my back on Him.’

But I have a newsflash for you… We’re all like Peter at times.

We like to think we’re a good friend to Jesus, but then life gets in the way and we:

Forget about Him, or

Someone asks us about our relationship with Him and we act like we don’t know Him, or

We rock up to youth and I can’t even lift my hands or sing a song for Him…

I remember when I was in high school…

I would say I love Jesus and He’s my friend, but I didn’t show it.

Imagine going up to your best friend at school and they were misrepresenting you… saying stuff about you that wasn’t true.

Or they acted like they don’t know you.

Imagine being Jesus…

Seeing your closest friends (the disciples) betray you and turn their backs on you after everything.

Not only that, but you know all of your future friends (us in this room) would also turn their backs on you.

Yet He still chose to die for everyone.

The beauty of having a friendship with Jesus is that when He shoulda left a long time ago, He’s chosen to still be with us and love us.

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Maybe you’ve had a friend betray you or hurt you like Jesus did.

I’m sorry that’s happened to you.

I promise you there’s a friend who’ll never leave you nor forsake you and His name is Jesus!

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You wanna know the best way to carry the love of God?

It’s to allow the love of God to carry us.

I’ll say it again: The best way to carry the love of God is to allow the love of God to carry us!

Footprints in the Sand:

A person had a dream in which they were walking along a beach with the Lord. Across the sky, memories from their life began to flash by. For most of the memories, they noticed two sets of footprints in the sand: one belonging to them, and one belonging to the Lord.

But as they looked back, they realized that during the darkest, most painful times of their life, there was only one set of footprints. Feeling hurt, they asked God, “Lord, why did You leave me when I needed You the most?”

God replied with compassion, “My precious child, I would never leave you. When you saw only one set of footprints, it was then that I carried you.”

John 15:13 NIV, “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”

You see, Jesus considered us as His friend, so much so that He:

Made a decision to die for us and for many years knew what kind of death He was going to endure.

He was in so much emotional agony that his sweat was described like drops of blood.

He was blindfolded, spat on, punched and had a crown of thorns screwed onto His head.

He was then lashed 39 times with a whip made of bone and metal.

39 X 39 HAVE WE SINNED AGAINST HIM AND YET WE HAVEN’T RECEIVED ONE LASH.

Exhausted He then carried His own cross.

Nails were driven into His hands and feet.

He hung on a cross and had to push Himself up just to catch a breath.

It wasn’t just physical but spiritual, where the sin of the world was poured on Him and He became sin.

Jesus feeling the agony of it all even said, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46).

I think of my relationship with my mum, whom I love so much.

She’s done everything for me and yet I don’t always give her my best.

Every bday and Christmas I’d get her a box of Favourites because I wanted to spend my money of fifa points or v-bucks.

And my mum was always so grateful I gave her something.

In a similar way, Jesus doesn’t expect much from us compared to what He’s given us.

But He does want our love and affection, which doesn’t cost much at all.

What Jesus did for us is a perfect picture of friendship.

Yet sometimes we won’t even give what little we can to the friendship.

We won’t lift our hands to Him.

Or we won’t even spend time with Him during the week.

Choosing Jesus on your terms or when it best suits you isn’t friendship at all.

John 15:14 “You are my friends if you do what I command.”

True friendship with Jesus is obeying what He teaches us.

Spending time with Him, not following the ways of the world, loving Him and others.

John 15:15 “I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.”

When we have close friendship with Jesus, His promise it that we’ll be blessed—where He’ll reveal more of Himself and His plans to us.

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Prayer:

Salvation altar call

Go into MHHH

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FA:

Youth Connects next week (your yth leader will contact you!)

Neon night in 2 weeks (invite a friend)

YA Conference (Rego $35 asap)

““A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.””

John 13:34-35 NIV