in our lives. God, I pray that as you speak through John this evening that we would learn more about you and just be more committed and just more knowledgeable about you and our relationship with you. God, I pray that if there's someone in this room who may not know you, God, that they are hearts and minds and ears and everything would be just open to you, you're carrying your word, God in hearing of your amazing saving grace, your name I pray, amen. Alrighty, hey, I'm Jeff Seat, you're everyone going to see?
Perfect. Alright, well hey, welcome to Mercy Hill. We are starting a new series today. It's always exciting starting a new series because that means we just got done with probably an eight week or more series and so we get to kind of change wins a little bit.
We just finished a series, I'll hold on a second, I've got to put on my ring, so I'll take off my ring to play the game but I need to put it back on so it's a fly away. Alright, cool. So we just finished a series about Easter and now we're doing four weeks in a series that we're calling Relationship Goals or hashtag Relationship Goals. And so today we're going to be looking at friendship goals.
Next week we'll be looking at marriage goals and so Pastor Will and his wife Alicia will be kind of doing a tag team thing next week talking about marriage goals. The following week we're going to be talking about dating and singleness goals and then the last week and probably the most important week is going to be talking about our goals when it comes to our relationship with Jesus and relationship with God. And then just give you a heads up after that we're going to dive into the book of Nehemiah so it's an Old Testament book and we're going to be doing that for about 12 weeks right after that so it's going to be a really great time. So this past week Amber and I were in Fredericksburg celebrating Easter with her family and her grandparents came over and they're telling us a story about when they used to own a farm with a lot of animals, a lot of cattle and that kind of stuff.
And they were telling us a story about one of their cows and they had, you know she gave birth to a calf and at that moment all the other cows lined up in a line and kind of like walked by all of the by the mama cow and the new baby cow, the baby calf. It kind of like giving like honor to the mother for this new child. I thought that was pretty interesting and just the dynamics between just these cattle and then they're telling us about how the cattle will take turns babysitting for all the different parents and all the different you know cow mummies and daddies and all that kind of stuff. And I just talked to myself look at what like how beautiful the relationship is between these different cows and how utterly despicable, come on now guys we gotta get that fine, all right?
I think it was going to fail but it was a guy did anyways. Otherly despicable, some of our relationships can be between one and other. I'm hoping that this series will allow us to have fulfilling relationships with our friends, with our spouses, with our current stage of life in it, with our relationship with Jesus. Now in a more serious note I was actually doing some research about specifically friendship and did you know that DC is actually ranked in the top three most lonely cities in America?
Where we live we have the most amount of lonely people because of its trans and scene, everyone moving in and out, nobody wants to invest, maybe it could be the kind of political, maybe power struggle that people see in jobs and all that kind of stuff. But for some reason we live in one of the most lonely cities in America. Another thing I looked up that was pretty interesting was that if you are over the age of 24 you have only a 15% chance of developing more deep relationships, friendships in your life. That most of your friendships will happen before the age of 24.
Isn't that crazy? That will stick with you. That over 24 either we get distracted because we're pursuing a spouse or we only want to spend time with that person or maybe hang out with their friends. For whatever reason, especially for guys, we do not like to go and develop relationships with other people.
Deep, meaningful relationships. I was thinking through how I can maybe express this and I came up with this question. It was how many of your social media, Facebook friends that you have a meaningful deep relationship with this week? Probably not, not many.
I was thinking through social media and just beginning of the series and I was thinking through how friendship has changed. In our day and age it can be a friend and how many have been a friend before from social media? Unfriended, you guys been unfriended? Yeah, I have.
Now, I came up with their list of reasons why I went and friend somebody. And so if you fall on this category, I apologize. But the first one is Annoying Animal Person. So you got to be here.
You know these people that put up, you know, animal memes all day long, right? Don't listen to them. You're not fat. You're fluffy.
That was actually because you guys mentioned it the other day that joke. But anyways, the next one is a Theologically Incorrect Jesus Jokes. You guys know people like that who put up this, share me and then the Satan's on the other side is like keep scrolling. That's not theologically correct.
You can love Jesus and scroll past that. I'm just saying, you know, and then the last thing, at these times of people, it's the girly quote people. Like they post all these like sentimental things, like dance like nobody's watching, love like you've never been hurt, saying like nobody's listening, live like it's on earth. Guys, I tried this in middle school and it did not work well for me.
All right, like it did not go well for me. But you know, I make light of this, but social media really has changed the way we view friendship. You can be friends with somebody you've never met. You can be friends with somebody you haven't talked to in 10 years.
You can even be friends with people that you don't even like. And yet you can share each other friends. Isn't that crazy? The sad truth is, I mean, as honestly, the sad truth is this.
We have never been more connected in our culture and yet been so alone. If you took the average and you kind of took a poll, most people feel that they do not have deep relationships, friendships where they feel like they can be vulnerable, friendships where they can feel like they can be honest. Viblically, the Bible tells us that friendship is actually the most important relationship that you can have before spouses, friendship with other people. And I hope to get to that in a second.
But if you want a little more evidence, I did some research again and found out that not only does the Bible talk about friendship, but society does. Norable psychologists Jane Collingwood says this, the causes of modern social problems from divorce to homelessness and to even obesity are often about to be based in areas as poverty, stress and unhappiness. But research suggests that we are overlooking something crucial, friendship. In modern day, a lot of our modern issues can be solved through friendship.
So the Bible says friendship's important. Our culture says friendship's important. I want us to look at what does it mean to really pursue close relationships. Now here's our main points.
I want you to get it right up front and it's this. Here's our main point. We are created to know and be known by others. And the most biblical place where that's to happen is the local church, is the family of God.
So let's go to John chapter 15. It's going to be our text today, John chapter 15. We're going to start in verse 9. That's in the New Testament.
And so if you have to look at the table of contents, it's fine. You don't have a Bible. It's going to be up here for you. John is Jesus is talking to his disciples here and he starts to talk to his friends.
Now this is important. Jesus had friends. Right? Isn't that weird to think about that?
Jesus, the Savior had friends. But he had an inner circle of three and then he had another nine that kind of where his really good close friends. And I'm sure he had acquaintances and that kind of stuff. But Jesus had a core group.
He had three close relationships and he is talking to these these relationships, these friends here. And he says this in John chapter 15 verse 9. As the Father has loved me, so I have 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've spoken to you that my joy may be in you and your joy may be full. This is my commandment that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this that he laid his doubt his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command.
No longer do I call you servants for the servants. Do not know what the Master is doing, but I have called you friends for all that I have heard my Father. I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you in a point that you should go and bear fruit and your fruit should abide so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give to you verse 17, these things I command you so that you will love one another.
I want to notice a few things before we dive into our main points and it's this. In this text, Jesus uses the word friend three times and then he qualifies what it means to be a friend by nine uses of the term love. For Jesus, friendship is about loyal, committed, vulnerable love. I hope to share with that as we go through these, but I want that to be the backdrop.
So the first goal, friendship goal is this, make friendship a priority. Look at verse 9 with me. He says, as a Father has loved me, so I have loved you. There's a strong theological statement there.
What Jesus is saying as the Father, God the Father has loved me. Jesus, God's Son, part of the Trinity. What this is telling us is this, that friendship was not created. Friendship was not created by God when he said, I'm going to make Adam and I'm going to make Eve.
Friendship existed in the Trinity before the foundations of this world between God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. As a Father, God the Father has loved me, Jesus. There was friendship. There was this loyal, committed love between God the Father and God the Son.
Why is this important? Well, if friendship was never created, that means it's a part of the nature of God himself. And so when in Genesis, when God tells us that we are made in God's image, he's telling us that we were created for this purpose of loving one another and for friendship. Before there was marriage in Genesis, there was friendship.
Oftentimes what we do in our life is we pursue relationships that aren't friendship first. I know when I was especially in high school and in college, what was the number one relationship I was after? It was a girl, it was a wife, right? It was a dating relationship.
How much time did I spend between my friendships developing deep friendships? Very little. Now it's a little bit different between, between ladies. Ladies have a lot more deep friendships than guys do, but it's still the same type of principle.
My priorities were wrong. And so a lot of us will go through life looking for that other person, putting so much effort and energy trying to find someone to marry, and yet we will miss out on actually developing good, healthy, biblical relationships with our friends. It must be a priority. Now I was thinking through this this week, I was thinking about how friendship really does set the stage for even good marriages and good dating experiences.
But I was thinking about this this week that friendship often involves two people sharing, right? You can't be a friend with somebody if you're the one who's always putting into the relationship and they're just taking them, not really giving anything back. That's a one-sided relationship, a one-sided friendship. So I think through the friendships that I've had, I think through the friendships that I had held dear to myself, and I noticed one particular kind of common theme through them, and it was this, that the friendships that I had took work.
Now it seems silly, all right? It seems so silly I would mention something like this, but a lot of us want deep personal friendships, but we don't want to put the work into it. Relationships really do take work. Now I love this because we're talking about we were created for this.
Adam and Eve were also created for friendship, but then God tells them to actually work through it. You see all throughout the Old Testament, God encouraging us people to handle friendship in different ways. We can think about Jonathan and David and how they handle their friendship and entire moments you see God to the Holy Spirit encouraging David or encouraging Jonathan to work in communication. In moments where there's miscommunication in the Old Testament, you see God wanting good communication to better relationships.
What we see in Scripture and in our own lives is this that we need to work. We were created for friendship, but we also have to work for friendship. It's a part of being created for God to expect us to work for it. Now second friendship goes this, we need to be a friend who is committed to being vulnerable.
We need to be a friend who's committed to being vulnerable. There's two things here. One is commitment, and the second is being vulnerable. Let's look at this.
Let's look at verse 13. Greater love has no one than this that someone laid down his life or his friends. Jesus was so committed to his friends. Remember he is talking to his friend group here.
Jesus was talking to his friends and saying this, you know what the prime example of a friend is? Someone who's going to be committed to you. Jesus was so committed to his friends that he was going to go to a cross and die for them. That's how committed he was.
He was committed. I don't know if you've ever had experience where you feel like you've had a friend who's like half in or half out. You don't feel like they're committed to the relationship. It's an awkward place to be.
The reality is that God expects us to be committed. That when we find friends that we believe are going to grow us in our relationship with God and we find friends that we want to belong to, the idea there is to be committed no matter what happens. And here's why it's scary though being committed. It's the second part.
We have to be vulnerable. We have to be vulnerable. Look at verse 15 with me. He says no longer do I call you servants for the servant does not know what the master is doing, but I've called you friends.
Guys, the word here literally means secret. Jesus says you hold a secret place in my heart about being vulnerable. And this is why friendship to be honest with you is so scary. It's so hard to do and have good solid friendships.
You're vulnerable and you're scared that what they may stab you in the back. You're vulnerable and you're scared that they may leave because they don't like what they see. Maybe you're vulnerable and you're scared at what they might say. Maybe you don't trust them.
And here's the reality. Having vulnerable committed relationships is difficult, but I guarantee you once you have people in your life that you know are committed to you, for you're good and that will be vulnerable. That will hold you accountable. People who will be honest with you that you feel like you can be honest to when you find people that know you and you know them, you will see immense growth in your life.
And I guarantee you'll find immense security. You'll know that no matter what happens in life, you have a group of people who will be there for you that got your back. Friendships are so important because it's about allowing us to be vulnerable. And as scary as it is, it allows us to deep in a dive deep into the type of friendship that Jesus wants us to have.
He wants us to be vulnerable. I was thinking through this and just thinking about how Jesus was vulnerable. Remember a couple weeks ago, we talked about the Garden of Gethsemane during our Easter series. We talked about Jesus and Merua Jesus tells us disciples, well, no one weighed up for me.
Like, can you not just wait up? Can't you pray for one hour without falling asleep in my darkest hour? Jesus was vulnerable and his friends let him down. See, these goals that we have are good.
But it's not really for us to say, okay, does that friend have this goal? It's really for us to be ready to look at ourselves and think to ourselves, am I that type of person? Am I committed and vulnerable even to my friends who are going to let me down? Like, Jesus was.
His friends let him down. They didn't even stop there. Peter denies them three times. They all go back to work.
They don't believe he's going to rise from the dead. That's pretty big betrayal. And yet, Jesus says, I'm going to still be committed. I'm going to still be vulnerable and commit myself.
Are you that type of friend? Are you the type of person that is willing to be vulnerable and committed to who your friends are and allow yourself to grow no matter how ugly and messy it can get? I guarantee you that it's going to hurt being vulnerable, but I'm not sure if you'll ever regret it. I think sometimes we can feel like I regret being vulnerable with this person and they stab me in the back.
I'm sure you may have feelings of hurt. But that's how we were designed to be. And once you find the people he could be vulnerable with, it's actually a beautiful thing. Now, this vulnerability we normally talk in the midst of marriage, right?
Certainly spouses, husbands, and wives need to be vulnerable and committed to each other. But I think we've kind of mixed this up and thought to ourselves that marriage is the only place where this honest vulnerability and commitment needs to be. And I was thinking through this this week that marriage, we'd like to think that marriage is a lot of romance with a little bit of friendship. But the reality is that marriage is actually a lot of friendship with a little bit of romance.
You can actually call it married friends with benefits, right? I cabbie out of that married friends with benefits, right? That's the real that's a real view of marriage. It's about the friendship.
Now romance is good. Romance is needed. But it's not the friendship. It's about the vulnerability, the honesty, the encouraging of one another.
Lastly, do you know that Jesus actually teaches more about healthy friendships in scripture than he does about marriage? I just want to show you just how focused Jesus is on telling his people, telling his friends, his disciples, how friendship is important and important to be committed. Next to that last one we're going to look at here is be a friend who influences one another. We see here verse 16 that he says, you did not choose me, but I choose you and point to you that you should go and bear fruit and your fruit should abide.
The type of language here is talking about somebody who actually influences fruit in your life. Now fruit in scripture, we often talk about his works in your life, good things in your life. Where Jesus says, if you need to be committed and vulnerable, but you need to be committed and vulnerable to the type of people who are encouraged you, who will encourage you to do the things God actually has prepared for you to do. That there are things that God has said.
This is what I long for you to be. This is how I want you to act. This is how I want you to grow in a relationship with me and your friends will help you get there. This idea of this talk of abiding is actually a horticultural term that talks about taking one plant or one tree stem and bringing it to another tree stem and grafting it in.
What happens over time is that foreign piece of tree ends up taking on the characteristics of the mother tree. The idea there is that there is here is this that the people you spend time with will influence you for better or for worse. So this, the friend relationship is actually the most significant relation when it comes to gaining weight. If your spouse gains weight, you have a 30% chance of gaining weight.
If you're sibling gains weight, you have a 40% chance. But if your friend gains weight, you have a 57% chance of gaining weight. What your friends are eating is actually more of an indicator of your health habits than that of your closest family. Trust me, I know this to be true.
Amber is my dearest friend. She's lost my wife. But listen, two pregnancies has add a lot of weight on me as well. Okay, I got a lot of pregnant weight.
Okay, that I still haven't lost. All right. Tell me it's true. Your friends influence you more than you know.
The reality is this, if you're growing in your relationship with God, it's likely because you surrounded yourself with and you're being committed and vulnerable with people who want to help you in your relationship with God. The flip side is if you are not growing in your relationship, there could be other reasons. But I guarantee you, part of the problem is you're not surrounding yourself with people who are, they have the best in mind for your spiritual walk. I see a lot of people just struggle over and over and over again.
Why can't I get through this? Why can't I get over this? I want to follow Jesus. I always tell them, well, you're listening to your friends or not telling you biblical things.
You're listening to your friends or leading you the wrong direction or giving you bad advice. Now God's not telling us not to have friends with people who don't have a relationship with Jesus, who aren't going to be best for you spiritually. He's not telling us not to do that. What he is telling us is that you're closest influencers in your life.
The people who influence you need to be people who love God and want the best for your spiritual walk with Jesus. Your core group like Jesus had a core three, you need to have a core group of people that you're diving deep with that will have your best spirituality in mind. That will encourage you when days get tough, that will rejoice with you and you can celebrate. That can love on you when you need it, but who can also tell you when you need to stop doing something stupid.
These are the types of friends we need. Now I'm going to give you three profiles from David's life. This is an Old Testament king of three friends that he has. I get these from J.D.
Grays of Haster and Raleigh and he gives these three friends a name. I wanted to use his titles here. The first guy he talks about is Samuel and he calls him the crown bestover. If you remember King David was just a young boy, he had a lot of brothers and he had a big monster guy that came.
It was Goliath and everyone was scared of Goliath. David was like, oh, go up again and he became gay. The problem is David had a lot of doubt in his life and over and over and over again. Samuel would come to David and call out the king and him.
You see David, you are meant for this. This is your destiny. He got his call to you to do this and take up the mantle. Don't get scared about what's coming ahead.
Don't get sidetracked. Go. Live to what God is calling you to do. Listen, you need people in your life that are going to be the crown bestower.
We're going to be in your life who are going to call out what God has given you to do. They're going to come to you and say, wow, I see this gifting in your life. Let's use that. You need people who are going to encourage you to follow Jesus.
You need people who are going to sit down with you and say, I know there's more in you to give to Jesus. Let's find out how we can influence the kingdom of God together with what's inside of you. That is what we need from our friends. The people who are going to call out God's plan out of us when we feel discouraged when we don't know what's next.
That's what we need. The second group of people is Jonathan and we call him the faithful companion. Remember, Jonathan is actually Saul's son who's the current king. Jonathan is actually in line for the kingdom.
Now, just think about this for a moment. You're in line to be the next king and it's prophesized that your best friend is going to be king instead. Like, no, I want to be king. And yet what we see is Jonathan being there for David the whole entire way.
You see when Saul, Jonathan's father is trying to kill David. You see Jonathan going war and David. You see over and over and over again, Jonathan go out of his way to make sure that David's okay. Well, this was interesting.
First Samuel 2818 is this and Jonathan saw us on Rose and went to David Huresh where he strengthened David's hand and God. This passage David is feeling the weight of so much discouragement. What's next? And Jonathan walks 30 miles to Huresh just to encourage his best friend.
You need to type a person that when you're in this moment of deep discouragement, you don't know what's going on. You need to type a person who not only shares your pain but makes your pain their own. A lot of people will sympathize with you. Not many people will empathize with you.
You need the type of people who that when you go through things, they're not only there for you, but they cry with you. That your pain that you're going through is their pain. The type of friendship that is deep, the type of friendship that Jesus wants us to have is with people that when we go through stuff, they're not only there for us, they hug us, they can soul us, our loss is their loss, the flip side, our celebration is their celebration. That's the type of friendship.
So are you that type of friend? Do you have the type of friend that will stick with you when other people walk out? Last friend type here is Nathan, the loyal, the loyal wounder. Later on David's life, if you remember the story, David makes a really stupid decision.
He makes a couple of them, but this is the biggest one. He sees a woman sitting on a rooftop and is filled with just the desire to be with her. And so he goes, he lies with her even though she's married, so he gets pregnant. Now he's got to figure out what to do with her husband who's currently away on military, assignment.
So he tries to connive it a little bit, brings her husband home, says, you know, want to see but your husband will just play it off like it's his, right? Really conniving, right? Her husband won't do that because he's an honorable man. He's a righteous man.
But David sends him to the front line so he knows he'll be killed in battle. And then he can marry Bathsheba without any problems. Twisted, conniving. David in a really bad moment, multiple bad decisions.
And what's funny, what's not funny, but what's worse is that he even forgets about it. He just goes on with life like nothing happened. And you have Nathan who comes to him and he says, David, you really messed up. You sinned against God.
You sinned against this guy. You sent him to his death. You have morally acted inappropriately and against God and you need to repent. Do we need people who encourage us?
We need people who will be there for us, but we also need people in our lives who will tell us that we're being stupid. We need people in our lives who say, dude, you hanging out over here, it's not going to end well for you. This thing you're doing is going to really ruin your marriage. This thing is going to cause a division in this friend group.
What you're doing right now is not going to be what's best for you spiritually. All of us need these people in our lives. But can I tell you something? The only way we get these people in our lives is to be committed to one another and being vulnerable to one another.
You will not find somebody in your life to be a Nathan for you if you're not vulnerable about your weaknesses. Now the common pushback I get from wanting to be these three and really wanting to have deep relationships, especially here's this. I'm only here for a few years. Why develop deep relationships and when I'm just going to have to move on or other people are going to know, DC is so transient, people just move left and right.
Why develop those relationships? One, I would say, because you're called to do it, you're created for it. But also you don't know the future. You could be here for multiple years.
And two, you don't know the impact that you can have as you're building these relationships. But even now, the beauty of even social media and the beauty of the internet, keeping those relationships alive. Second thing people tell me is I'm an awkward person. You know what?
You probably are. I'm just kidding. We're all awkward. We all got our own issues, right?
Because the deal, God would not create you for something that you're not capable to do. God created each and every one of us that have meaningful relationships. So I know that you can do it. Last thing I get is I'll be fine on my own.
I know a lot of people who don't say, I know I don't need deep relationships. You know what? That's probably true until the moment you really need them. You can convince yourself that you'll be fine on your own until your world starts to crumble.
When you're at the moment where you know you have to call somebody at midnight, asking for prayer, asking for this help, you'll probably be fine on your own until the rug gets swept under you. You find yourself on your back with nowhere to go. You'll probably be fine on your own until you actually need it in your life. But I guarantee you, if you live long enough, you'll see the moment where you actually need it, where you need friendship.
So don't let that be a deterrent. But I want to close with the most important thing about this lesson. The very beginning, we see that Jesus says, as a father has loved me, and I have loved you. We talked about the relationship between the father and the son and the love, the friendship that was there for all of eternity.
But we didn't talk about how Jesus has loved us. And it's actually this text, it's actually a I call it a sandwich text, it's not the logical term, but the chiastic structure, you want to know. But verse nine is linked with verse 17. So Jesus' main point here is this, as a father has loved me, and so I have loved you, abide in my love, verse 17, these things that I command you that you will love one another.
What he is saying is Jesus has loved us. We should now love one another. There's no excuse to not belong to friendship and have friendships, because that's what we're created for. There's no excuse not to be committed and to be vulnerable, because that's what God has done.
That's what Jesus has done for us. But I want to share with you just the beauty of the example that Jesus has showed us using these front types. Jesus is the greater Samuel. Where Samuel spoke into David's life and called out what was inside of him, Jesus tells us that we are God's children.
And he actually calls out in us, the calling that God has given us on our lives through his sacrifice. Jesus is also the greater Jonathan. Jonathan was committed and faithful to David, but Jesus was committed and faithful to you. David was in need and Jonathan was willing to walk 30 miles.
We are in need of a desperate need of a savior, and Jesus went not 30 miles, but he went to the cross for us. Jonathan gave up his kingship to be faithful to David. Jesus gave up his throne in heaven to come down here on earth to hang on a criminal's cross. Jesus was also the greater Nathan.
Nathan loved David enough to confront David when he went astray. Jesus loved us enough to come down to this earth to tell us. There's a way back to God, where the barrier is our sin. Jesus loved us enough that he was willing, as Lippians tells us, to go to the cross, humble himself, and go to the cross.
No greater love is any man than the one who would give up his life or his friends. Jesus shows us that here, not only in his words to his people but his friends, but he shows it to us on the cross when we celebrated last week. You and I have no excuse not to have good friendships. We were created for it, and as scary as it is being committed and vulnerable, that's what God's calling us to do.
But he's calling us to do that with people who are going to encourage us spiritually and people that will influence us to grow in our relationship with God and not stifle it. The best place to do that is in the tree. Jesus uses this example of abiding in him. He's talking about the body of Christ that no matter our differences, no matter our economic status, no matter what our interests are, we could have had a completely different life and it does not matter if we are part of the same tree.
If you love Jesus and I love Jesus, we're part of the same family. We can now encourage one another to grow. We can have a friendship that is deep and that is meaningful. Now here's a caveat and just want to be clear.
I encourage you to do that with people of the same sex because when you are vulnerable and you're committed and it's normally with the opposite sex, a lot of times that's what causes people to actually I'm an adultery. It brings up emotions to leave their current spouse. I just want to encourage you. If you're married, do that with somebody who is of the same sex.
That's just a caveat there. But you'll be surprised. When you start having meaningful and deep relationships, you'll see just growth in your life. You'll see how much you're growing.
You'll see how they encourage you to continue and you'll see how God is going to use to be these friends. You'll see how God is calling you to be the Nathan or the Samuel or the Jonathan in your friends lives. So let's pray. Lord, you are good and you're gracious to us.
God, thank you so much for sending Jesus who is the greater friend. Thank you for sending the greater, the greater Samuel, the one who calls out in us God's purpose in our life. Father, for those in this room who just feels like they don't have a purpose and they need Jesus to give them that purpose. Would I pray that they would know that you have saved them, not just to deliver them from sin, but you have saved them for a particular purpose.
And now we get to work in this kingdom together here calling out that purpose with one another. If that's you and you see, I just don't know what my purpose is. We just raise your hand. I'm not a best pray for you.
Some of you hear maybe thinking about Nathan or the friend that Jesus is the greater Nathan that where Nathan called out stupidity and David's life and rebellion and David's life. You're thinking here, I have no one that does that. I don't have anyone in my life who calls out when I am rebelling against God and I am not working my way towards a growing relationship with him. You're honest.
Would you just raise your hand and just say, you know, I need somebody. I need somebody who will do that for me. Good. Lastly, some of you might be thinking about Jonathan, the faithful companion, the one who walked 30 miles just to comfort his friend.
Some of you might be sitting here thinking, I don't really have that. You're sitting here and you're thinking through different friends that you have. You recognize that you don't have that friend who's there for you. You just raise your hand.
I just want you to know that the body of Christ is here for you. With all of our strengths, with all of our differences, but the beauty of it is God has called us to friendship. He has called us to fill those roles. And as long as Mercy Hill is meeting, worshiping the Lord, developing and growing as a church family, we're more than happy, more than willing to be a Samuel and Nathan and Jonathan to you.
But most of all, I want you to be thinking about what type of friend you are. You may not have some of them, or maybe you do, but what type of friend are you? Are you an Ethan? Are you a Samuel?
Are you a Jonathan? Are you committed to being vulnerable with other people as scary as that may seem? As a father has loved Jesus, and as Jesus has loved you, now you love one another. I pray that we reflect this.
I'm Mercy Hill Church, Father. I pray that we reflect friendship. I pray that any person that walks in here, we know that we love one another, that we take care of one another. Lord, I pray that we get to show the world what it really means to have true loyal love as you love us.
In Jesus' name, amen.