Jesus Sets The Friendship Standard; Therefore, Do You Have Earthly “Friends” or Just “Acquaintances”?

MESSAGE SUMMARY: Our relationship with the person, Jesus, provides our entry into Eternal Life provided by God’s saving Grace; Jesus’ death on the Cross.; and Jesus’ Resurrection. Christianity, without this relationship with Jesus, is an empty religion. Jesus says, in Luke 12:4: “I tell you, my friends, do not fear those who kill the body, and after that have nothing more that they can do.”; and, in John 15:12 Jesus says: “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. . . [then] You are my friends . . .”. Is your perspective of your “friends” like Jesus’ perspective of friendship; or are your “friends” really just “acquaintances”?

Also, in John 15:14, Jesus establishes a very high bar for His relationship with us – friendship: “You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.". Our relationship is not with the concept of Christianity but with the person of Jesus – “What a friend we have in Jesus!”

 

TODAY’S AFFIRMATION: Today, because of I am filled with the Holy Spirit, I will not be controlled by my Anxiety. Rather, I will walk in the Spirit’s fruit of Peace. “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.” (Galatians 5:22f).

 

THIS SUNDAY’S SERMON: You can listen to Archbishop Beach’s Current Sunday Sermon: “The Sermons on the Amount - Part 2  "Owner - A Question: Who is Lord?", at our Website: www.AWordFromTheLord.org/listen/.

 

WEBSITE LINK TO DR. BEACH’S VIDEO: “The Interior Life – The Power of the Will (Red Bank Chapel; Chattanooga, TN),  https://www.lightsource.com/ministry/a-word-from-the-lord/`

 

SCRIPTURE REFERENCE (ESV): John 15:14-17; John 3:16-17; Psalms 38:1-22.