Episode 4 - Friend of God

Pastor Dan walks through 3 famous verses in John 15 that talk about our joy being complete, laying down our lives for our friends, and being called a friend of God. 

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Hey, welcome back to another Sermon Prep Podcast. I'm Dan Metzgrim, the pastor at St. Mark's United Methodist Church, and we've been going through this series where we've been in the upper room with Jesus in the book of John and just kind of walking through all of that. There is so much that happens in John's gospel in the upper room. It's chapters 13 through 17. And uh in the six weeks that uh comprise, I just don't have time to talk about all of those things. And so I'm talking about some of the things that um I'm not able to share during the sermon. Uh, I'm gonna share some of those during this uh during this podcast. This week we're in chapter 15 in this story of the vine and the branches, and I'm gonna be talking about that a little bit on Sunday. But there are three verses towards um the middle of chapter 15 that are kind of famous verses, verses that um we'll sometimes pull out and have them stand on their own, and they become some of our favorite like memory verses or uh just little truths about Jesus. And so I just want to look at three of those today that I thought are really interesting. So the first one comes from John 15, this is verse 11, and it says, I've told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. And it's this um verse that will, yeah, we'll sometimes pull it out and say, Oh, Jesus wants us to be joyful, he wants us to be just happy. Uh like I've told you all these things, all the stuff that I've taught you, is so that you can be happy. Uh, but you know, if you look at the the context of what he's talking about, as we often say, got to look at the context, he's talking about the thing that's gonna help your joy be complete is if you do the thing that's in the verse right before. And it says, if you keep my commands, you'll remain in my love just as I have kept my father's commands and remain in his love. And the command that he's talking about is this new command that he's just given them to love one another just as he has loved us, we should love one another. And how has he loved us? He's loved us in this big and bold and sacrificial kind of way. He's talking about this sacrificial love, the same kind of love that he shows to Judas, the same kind of love that he shows to Peter, who's about to deny him, the same kind of love he shows to all of these disciples who are about to fall away. He's like, I want you to love people in this way. And so then in verse 11, he says, I've told you to do this so that your joy may be complete. My joy will be in you, your joy will be complete. You will be joyful if you love others in this way. And what a countercultural way of looking at joy. Uh, because our idea of joy, our idea of what are the things that are going to be the things that make you happy, what are those things? Usually those things are stuff, they are uh successes, they are vacations, they are the the things that we get to do, that the things that happen to us, um, where we get what we want, where we achieve our goals, where um where we're able to just rest or relax or whatever it might be. It's stuff that's for us. And instead, Jesus is saying, no, if you want your joy to be complete, go out and love others and give that stuff to them. Now you know that in in ways you've seen that, right? I mean, you see that at Christmas time. Oh, it's better to give than to receive, and it's so much more fun to give the gifts than to receive the gifts. Like you get you get tastes of that. But Jesus isn't talking about this being just an occasional kind of thing. He's talking about this being a lifestyle, a way that we live, that that our joy is complete when we are serving others and not being served. And that's just not generally the way that we think about it. We usually think about wanting uh wanting the things that we want, um, the things that that we think will make us happy, the things that we've been striving for all of our lives. Uh and it's uh it's this way of kind of turning all that on its on its head. Now, in verse 13, which is it, I think these tie into each other. Verse 13, he says this other thing that we'll sometimes just pull out and make one of our favorite verses. He says, Greater love has no one than this to lay down one's life for one's friends. And of course, we know that Jesus is about to go to the cross, he's about to literally do this, he's about to show us what sacrificial love really looks like. And um, you know, when we look at this verse, I think sometimes we take it all the way to the extreme of, well, where are the what are the instances in which I would die for someone, in which I would actually give my life for someone. Um, you know, you think about doing that, like I would, I would absolutely lay down my life for my kids, uh, I'd lay down my life for my family, for uh, you know, in in some sort of heroic setting where I would be remembered, maybe they'd make a statue of me somewhere, or we think about it in terms of our military or um some of our uh police officers or or other people like that, people who put their lives on the line for others, will sometimes use that, use that verse. And I think that's a a true application of it, but I also think that it has something to do with what I was just talking about in verse 11, with this idea of um joy coming from serving and not being served. Just think about that. The happiest people that you know, the most joyful people that you know, they are people who are giving of themselves, who are constantly finding ways to give of themselves. Very few of us are gonna be asked to actually lay down our lives, to actually uh die for someone. I'm not saying it could never happen, but for most of us that's not gonna be the case. But I would say that for all of us, at some point in time, you might be asked to be inconvenienced for someone, you might be asked to uh to go out of your way to love someone and to do something that um yeah that that isn't beneficial to you at all. Uh how willing are we to even do that? So maybe before we get to the point of laying down our lives for someone, like are we even willing to be inconvenienced for someone? Um a few years ago, I had the opportunity to meet a guy by the name of uh Cameron Mitchell. Uh Cameron Mitchell uh is a restaurateur, he's uh owns a lot of higher-end restaurants and uh has done really, really well for himself in all of this. And uh he was talking actually with a group of pastors. We we were asking him about um just what are some of the things that have made you successful? And uh he talked about this attitude that they have of hospitality, of ways of being able to differentiate themselves from from other restaurants. And uh he wrote a whole book around this idea, and the book is called, and it really kind of gives the premise of the whole thing. It's called Yes is the answer, what is the question? And it's just kind of this willingness to go above and beyond. He tells this story over and over again of uh going to some restaurant and he had a uh I think his daughter with him, and um, she wanted a grilled cheese sandwich. And they're like, Oh, we don't have grilled cheese on the menu. And he's like, Oh, okay, well, then can I have the club sandwich and can you hold everything but the cheese and sautea on either side? And they're like, Yeah, I guess we could do that. And he's like, All right, well, can she have a chocolate milkshake? And they're like, Well, we don't have chocolate milkshakes. He's like, Do you have chocolate milk? Said, yeah. Said, I see you have this pie a la mode. What's a la mode mean? Is there ice cream? They're like, Yeah, there's a scoop of vanilla ice cream. He's like, Great, can you take that scoop of vanilla ice cream, put it in the chocolate milk, throw it in a blender, and then put it in a glass and bring it out? And they're like, Yeah, we don't want to do that. Like, we're not gonna do that for you, sorry. And his whole his whole premise and what he's tried to build his restaurants around is this idea that we're gonna go out of our way for people. We're we're gonna like, yes, we can figure this out, we can do this. Don't know how, but we're gonna say yes, and then we're gonna try to figure it out the best that we can. And I I just wonder what it would be like if we as the church, and not just as a church, but as individual Christians, would take more of that mentality and that attitude of saying, yeah, we're gonna go out of our way to show love and hospitality and grace and mercy to people, even when it's hard for us to do. We love the low-hanging fruit, we love the the easy opportunities to be able to show love. Um, and and we should, we're gonna absolutely keep doing those. But what about the times when you have to really go out of your way to love somebody, to care for them, to show them that God cares about them, uh, to show them that Jesus loves them? Are you willing to do those things, to go, as Jesus would say, to go that extra mile, um, to show somebody a little bit of grace and a little bit of love. So that's it's been something that I've been trying to practice. Now, it it raises this interesting question of um where do you set boundaries and um and not let people walk all over you and that kind of thing, and and where do you make sure you're getting enough rest and uh the things that you do need to do. But um I try when if at all possible to say yes when when I I see somebody coming asking for just a little bit of love or a little bit of grace or a little bit of help with something, if there's a way to be able to do that, um that's that's a sacrificial love that I, you know, that I try to try to show to others. I don't always get that right. Uh, and there's some days where it's I'm just like, I don't have it in me. I physically I can't, I've got to rest, I'm sorry, and I don't think Jesus is mad at you for taking a Sabbath. I think you're commanded to do that. But there are also times where it's okay, and and I think it's something we're maybe called to to love in some sort of sacrificial way. Uh the other day I was uh at home and I like I had just sat down. And when you have just sat down, that's isn't that the best moment when you've just finally sat down. I look forward sometimes to sitting down. I look forward to it all day long. Like, oh uh at six o'clock, I'm gonna get to sit down. That'll be wonderful. Um, I had gotten home, I had just sat down, and there was somebody who called and asked, Hey, can you help? I need uh to pick this thing up. Um, and I know you have a pickup truck, and and can you help? That's the danger of having a pickup truck, by the way. People know you have a pickup truck, and uh and so, but I said, yes, uh, I'm gonna do it. And it ended up being this really beautiful interaction, a time that I got to share with with somebody a little bit, and um, it was just something that I think they needed in that day, also. And so I was glad, I was glad I did it. And you know what? It made my joy complete. It was more joyful than the sitting on the couch that I was going to do. I did go back and sit on the couch later. I'm not gonna lie to you. I went back and finally did sit down. But there's this uh there's this beauty and there's this joy in being able to do these things for other people. I think it's a part of what Jesus calls us to. Now, the last verse I want to talk about is verse 15. And it's this really, really beautiful thing that Jesus says. He says, 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. This idea of Jesus calling us friends is mind-blowing to me. He's just revealed, I mean, he's revealed himself, he's in the middle of revealing himself as the king and creator and savior of the universe. He is the one that spoke the world into existence, who who put the stars in the sky and and calls them by name. He is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, and he says, Hey, this is my buddy Dan. Like that blows my mind. That's that's such a wild thought to me, that this same God, that this very God, would consider us friends. And it, you know, and it's this it's this thing that he's he's saying it in the in the context of, you know, you're not servants anymore. You're not just servants, because a servant is somebody who's who's beneath me, who's just doing my bidding. Instead, we're doing this thing together. We are servants together, uh, we are friends together, and we are we are working through this mission uh that God has put in our place. And just what what what an awesome, awesome thought. Uh, I think there was this old, I'm trying to remember who the the group was. It was a group that my parents listened to when I was growing up. I think it's Phillips, Craig, and Dean. Um, and they had this song called Uh I Am a Friend of God. He calls me friend. And it it starts off with these words of, Who am I that you are mindful of me, that you'd hear me when I call? Um, is it true that you're thinking of me? Uh, how amazing. All of that is absolutely true. It's such a beautiful concept, and it's a big part of what makes Christianity different, is that we're not just these you know pawns of a of a God reigning on high who is moving around chess pieces and causing things to happen, and sees us as nothing but dust. And he sees us as something of value and of worth, and he cares about us, and he desires relationship with us. And it's this amazing thought that that he would desire to be friends with us. And so, what do good friends do? Good friends keep up with one another, they talk with each other, they communicate with each other. So, if we are going to be friends of Jesus, that can't be just a one-way relationship where he is a friend to us and uh we just kind of blow him off whenever he's reaching out to us. What does friendship with Jesus look like for you? What what do your other friendships look like? And do you give Jesus that same kind of attention and that same kind of uh do you value that time in the same way, or do you just fit Jesus in where you can? I think that uh that's something that I've been trying to work on more lately, is that it's easy for me to fall into the trap of as a pastor, sometimes my faith is my job. And I don't want it to always be just my job, but I I try to find these times where I can just be with my friend, be with Jesus, and uh in in times of prayer, in times of uh just contemplation, times of of meditating on him and and who he is and um and all that he has done for me. I I want to be in this place where this isn't just uh uh a thing that I do on Sundays and that I work at during the week, but I want to be a friend of Jesus. And I don't think this is something that is unique to just pastors where just we fall into this trap. I think sometimes our faith can become almost like a responsibility that we feel or a burden that we carry, like, oh, I didn't do my devotions and I now I feel bad or I didn't pray or whatever. He's desiring a relationship with us, he's desiring uh something with us that is that is more than just responsibility, it's more than just um some God on high commanding that you worship him in this certain way at this certain time. He just wants to be with us because he loves us. And I think that's beautiful. So my challenge to you this week is to find a way to renew your friendship with Jesus and beyond all of that, find some ways to say yes to others for the sake of Jesus, and then say, What's the question? How can I serve you? How can I love you? Uh, even maybe when they don't deserve it, even when it's a little bit inconvenient for you. How can you love someone in a sacrificial way? And in so doing, make your joy complete. That's all for today on the Sermon Prep Podcast. I hope to see you back here next week.