You are invited to examine your closest relationships and ask if they reflect the sacrificial love Jesus showed you. Instead of waiting for the perfect moment, choose to lay down your plans and desires today for the sake of others. Let this covenant friendship transform how you love your community, knowing you are called to serve just as He served.
What is up real church? This is Daniel Mannix, I had the honor of bringing the message on the covenant relationship of friendship. We talk about 3 things that a good friend does. That friend encourages and holds others accountable, serves others, and *sacrifices* themselves for others. I pray that this message blesses you, that it brings you encouragement, that it brings you hope, and it brings you the love of Jesus.
*God bless* you. Thank you. Thank you for the warm welcome. I'm old school, I use papers. So he's gonna get a stand for me.
Good morning, real church.
Good morning.
And good morning to those that are watching online. I have really been enjoying this series. All these different ways we respond to God's love whether that be through worship or prayer or fasting or our covenant relationships. Last week, we went over marriage and we actually got to witness a wedding ceremony right here during service. How awesome was that?
Congratulations to the married couple over there. Yeah. So this morning, I have the honor to speak about friendship. Friendship is an important covenant relationship, guys. Most of us have heard the saying before, "show me your 5 closest friends" and I'll show you your future.
It's pretty accurate actually. And like most good advice, God said it first. The Bible talks all about being very careful of who we choose to be friends with. It's all throughout the book of Proverbs. Check this out.
*Proverbs-12:26 says, the righteous choose their friends carefully, but the way of the wicked leads them astray. Proverbs-13:20* says, walk with the wise and become wise for a companion of fools suffers harm. *Proverbs-22:24* says, don't make friends with a hot tempered person. Don't associate with 1 easily angered or you may learn their ways and get yourself ensnared. Everybody's like, amen to that.
And if you didn't, you might be that hot tempered person. But the bible goes farther than that. It actually teaches us how to be a good friend to those around us. It it talks about a friend that "sticketh closer than a brother". And that friend is Jesus Christ himself.
Amen? Amen. Jesus is the perfect embodiment of what it means to be a good friend. And so, this morning we're gonna study Jesus, the friend, and learn from the master. Sound good?
Yeah.
Alright. But before we do that, let's pray. This has to be "Holy Spirit" letter. It's worth nothing. So let's pray.
*Holy Spirit*, this is your time. *God*, take over. Push me out of the way. Speak through me your truth clear, Lord God, that it penetrates the hearts of men and women. I pray that it marinates in our spirits and I pray that it changes us from the inside out.
I pray that everything on this morning be to your glory. In the name of Jesus we pray. Amen. Amen. Amen.
So, Jesus had a lot of what I would call acquaintances. Okay? Everywhere he went, large crowds would gather around him. There were some that wanted to hear his teachings. There were some that wanted to witness or be a part of his miracles.
And there were some even that wanted to see his downfall. So, Jesus was careful about who he had in his inner circle, who he allowed to get close to him. He had 12 of them. He called them disciples. And in this inner circle, were 3, what we would consider to be best friends, James, John and Peter.
These 3 men were some of the first that followed Jesus and they had a level of access or intimacy with Jesus that nobody else really had. But please don't think that these men did anything special to get themselves in that inner circle. Quite the opposite, actually. We hear the story of the Garden Of Gethsemane. Jesus is about to get arrested.
He's going to go to the cross or he's going to suffer the worst tragedy in in the history of mankind. And he calls his 12 disciples into the garden with him and he goes away to pray to his father and he takes the 3 best friends with him. This is a unique moment of of the weakness of Jesus' humanity on full display. Okay? He's he's going to pray to his father, the son of God**, praying to the Father God in this intimate moment.
And, these 3 disciples, these 3 best friends get the opportunity to be a part of it. It's an honor, isn't it? Let's read about it. *Matthew-26* starting in verse 36 says, then Jesus went with them to a place called Gethsemane and he said to his disciples, sit here while I go over there and pray. And taking with him Peter and the 2 sons of Zebedee, which is James and John, he began to be sorrowful and troubled.
Then he said to them, my soul is very sorrowful, even to death. Remain here and watch with me. And going a little farther, he fell on his face and prayed saying, my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will. And, he came to the disciples and found them praying fervently that their best friend would have the strength to endure the most heinous crime ever committed in the history of mankind.
It's not what it says. It says he found them sleeping. 3 times he found them sleeping. And, when Jesus was arrested, they all just scattered like sheep without a shepherd. Cowards, right?
Peter denied him 3 times. You see, the disciples, the best friends, they were not special because of anything that they did. They were special solely because Jesus declared them to be special. His friendship with them was not born out of anything that they could do for him. It wasn't what he was getting out of it.
It flowed out of his love for them. Jesus rendered them worthy of his friendship. Render means to cause to become. He caused them to become worthy of his friendship. When he first calls Peter and his brother Andrew, Jesus says, Follow me and I will make you **"fishers of men"**.
Not follow me and you'll do this 1 step and I'll teach you this next thing, and you're going to work hard to get yourself here, and eventually, you're going to get enough experience and wisdom and knowledge that you're going to be able to be a fisher of men. No. Follow me and I will render you fishers of men. And he offers the same relationship to you and I. Amen?
Okay. So, we see that friendship doesn't flow out of what the other person can do for us, but it flows out of our love from the heavenly Father. Yeah, say that again. The horizontal relationship that we have with people, this love that we have here on earth, is just a reflection or vertical love that we receive from the Father. So, what does a good friend do?
I'm going give you 3 practical things that a good friend does. The first thing that a good friend does is encourage and hold accountable those around them to the things of God. Jesus was very encouraging to his disciples. He has this prayer in John-17 that's it's incredible. I love it.
And, he's praying for his friends on behalf of his friends to his father. Let's read some of that here. In John-17, I'm starting in verse 6 here, I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me. Verse 8 says, I have given them the words that you gave me. Verse 9, I am praying for them.
Verse 12, while I was with them, I kept them in your name which you have given me. I have guarded them, and not 1 of them has been lost except the son of destruction that the scripture might be fulfilled. Verse 15, I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil 1. Verse 17, I love this 1, Sanctify them in the truth. Your word is truth.
Amen. Finally, verse 26, Jesus says, I've made known to them your name and I will continue to make it known that the love with which you have loved me may be in them and I in them. Do you pray for your friends like this? Do you pray that they would be protected from the evil 1? Do you pray that they would be sanctified in the truth?
In other words, that they would literally be made holy by the word of God**. Jesus prayed this for his friends. He was so encouraging. But, he didn't baby them. He didn't lie to them.
He actually had to rebuke them because of their lack of faith. He had to correct their envy and their jealousy. He had to he had to call them out when they were squabbling over each other about who among them was the greatest. Ridiculous, right? He even called Peter Satan.
Let's read that. Matthew-16:21, From that time, Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed, and on the third day be raised. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. Exactly. Can you imagine trying to rebuke Jesus?
That's probably not gonna end up right. I mean, wow. Far be it from you, Lord. This shall never happen to you. But, he turned and said to Peter, get behind me, Satan.
You are a hindrance to me for you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man. Do you have the boldness to call out your friends in love? In love. There has to be both, grace and truth. Do you have the boldness to call them out when they're not seeking the things of God, but they're focused on the things of man?
This friendship of a balance between encouragement and accountability is exemplified in my life with my friend Eddie Purvis, my good brother right here. Eddie is so quick to call me out, guys. He doesn't waste any time. He will call me out when I'm setting my mind on the things of man instead of the things of God. But guess what?
He does it out of love. And so, I don't hide anything from him. There's no fear in love. Right? Fear has to do with punishment.
I don't have to hide anything from him. I say, man, I screwed up in this, or I'm struggling with that, or I'm having trouble with faith in this area of my life, and vice versa. And we pray for each other. We pray for each other's wisdom and purity and faith. And, we pray that we would be sanctified in the truth of God, that he would literally be changing us from the inside out.
I can't tell you how important it is to have a friend like that in your life. So important. Last December, Eddie said, you need to fast. What? You need to fast.
*God*'s God's telling me that this is your next step. You need to fast. Will you pray about it? Yeah. Yeah.
Alright, man. I will pray about it. If you guys can't tell, I didn't want to fast. Was I'm super skinny as you can tell. It's hard for me to go without a meal.
I have a very fast metabolism. And so, I'm using all these excuses, right? But he wouldn't let it go. Hey, did you pray about it? Are you gonna fast?
When are gonna fast? How much are you gonna fast? How long are you gonna fast? And, he's also encouraging me to fast. Man, I tell you what, when I fasted in January, it was life changing.
It was incredible when I set my mind on the things of *God* and threw away the things of man. I didn't have time for the things of man. And, I have Eddie to thank for that. Eddie walked me through that. Why would he do that?
Because Eddie is more concerned with my spirit than my flesh. Come on. Eddie cares more about my eternity than my comfort. Yes. That's a true friend.
That's right. Get yourself a friend like Eddie. Be a friend like Eddie. The second thing that a good friend does is serve others. Jesus served his friends in so many ways.
I mean, this was this was really exemplified in the washing of the disciples' feet. Here's the *creator of the universe* washing the dirty feet of his creation. I mean, were no closed toed shoes. These these people walked in a lot of dirty roads. This was a task reserved for slaves, non Jewish slaves at that.
And, here's the **king of kings* humbling* himself to wash their dirty feet. Even Judas, even the 1 he knew would betray him. That's a whole sermon in and of itself. I'm not even gonna go there. And, you've probably preached it before, brother.
Let's read what Jesus says after that. John-13:12. When he had washed their feet and put on his outer garments and resumed his place, he said to them, do you understand what I have done to you? You call me teacher and Lord and you are right for so I am. If I then, your Lord and teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash 1 another's feet.
For I have given you an example that you also should do just as I have done to you. Truly, truly. In other words, pay attention. I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the 1 who sent him. If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.
**Blessed** are you if you do them. Not if you know them, if you do them. Yeah. Do you serve your friends? I'm not saying you have to wash their feet necessarily, but do you serve your friends?
Or better yet, do you serve others with your friends? Do you lead your friends to go serve others? As Paul says in Philippians-2, do you, in humility, count others more significant than yourself? Amen. 1 of my best friends is Nathan Robnik.
Nathan here this morning. I actually met Nate during a serve event. Him and I were serving breakfast to homeless people, and we hit it off. And before you know it, we were leading a men's Bible study together, and we were serving men for years, leading them in the things of God. And God's given us this cool passion to serve the community around us, more specifically, the downtrodden, the less fortunate community.
And, you know, a couple of times, Nate and I, we've just gotten in a car and we've gone to South Saint Pete and we'll go to discount grocers, and dollar stores, and Walmarts, and we'll get into the parking lot, and we'll pray, and we'll say, Holy Spirit, show us who you want us to bless. And, we'll go inside and we'll walk around. It could be a little awkward, know, it's a little weird. You're acting like you might be trying to buy something, but really, you're just looking for the Holy Spirit, you know. And, we'll just go up to people and say, *God loves* you so much.
He wanted me to give this to you. Or, how can I pray for you? Or, we'll go to the checkout line and just pay for all of someone's stuff. And, their responses are incredible. I mean, tears and hugs, it's such an awesome experience praying with these people for *reconciliation* and healing and salvation and all these different things.
It's been an amazing experience. I'll give you 1 example, my favorite. There was this elderly lady and Nate and I started talking to her and she was so open with us, so vulnerable, just talking about, you know, she's working a couple of jobs and she's taking care of her really elderly mother and she's struggling with all these things and she couldn't have been more vulnerable with us. She allowed us to pray with her and it was intense. It was a powerful prayer.
When we were done, all 3 of us are wiping tears from our eyes and Nate hands her a folded up bill. And, out of just pure thankfulness and gratitude, she doesn't even look at it, she just puts it in her pocket and just thanking him. And, now Nate's on fire. So, he goes running toward the cash out line, you know, he's going go bless somebody else. She goes around the corner to another aisle, and I'm just standing there, I'm just thanking God, know, thank you for bringing this person in our path.
It's so amazing to have this opportunity to bless people. When all of a sudden, she comes running around that corner, and she comes running right for me, and she's weeping, just weeping. You see, she must have unfolded the bill when she turned the corner and noticed that it was $100. Now, know a $100 is a lot for most people in this room. It's a lot for me.
But, for someone that doesn't have anything, I mean, it's the world. Yeah. Like, I can't believe somebody would do this for me, you know, the radical generosity. And so, she embraced me with this hug that was 1 of the most "purest hugs" I've ever had and we're both weeping. She's got me crying now, you know.
We're just praying and thanking God and it was just an amazing experience, you know, something that I don't think I'll ever forget. But, not everybody's response is like that. Some people are confused, suspicious, really, like baffled, like, why are you doing this for me? And, what organization are you with? You know, what what do you want from me?
Right? Because, they live in a world where everything's about me. And, what can I get from you? And, how can I take advantage of you? And, they try to wrap their minds around this radical generosity.
They're trying to rationalize it, and they can't make sense of it because we're not getting anything from them. But, guys, people shouldn't be surprised by the radical generosity of Christians. This should be our trademark. This should be what people know us by. They should know us by how we love.
And, *God* so loved the world that He gave, so we give. We should give. People should not be surprised by it. Know, last time we did this was around Christmas time, so it was just a couple months ago. And, we saw some awesome things.
We saw a lady get baptized in the Holy Spirit, which is incredible. But, if I'm to be honest with you guys, that morning, I really didn't feel like doing it. I just wasn't feeling it. Nate's smiling right now because he knows, he remembers. This is going cost a lot of money.
I'm super busy. It's COVID, you know, people are going be standoffish. I got the mask on. Communication is going to be weird. Just making up every excuse you could possibly imagine.
But Nate kept saying, Hey man, we're doing this, right? Are we doing this? Come on. Okay. Yeah.
So, I get in my car, I go down to Saint Pete, I pick him up, he gets in the car. And, not even a few minutes in, he's like, honestly bro, like, I don't really feel like doing this, man. It's a beautiful day. Like, I was hanging out with some friends. I was having a good time.
I'm like, what? Dude, I came because you wanted to do this. So, we both just started laughing and I just thought to myself, wow, *God*, we wanted to serve each other. We didn't want to let each other down. And, because of that, God could use us to bless a broken world to help people less fortunate.
Let's get yourself a friend like Nate. Be a friend like Nate. You know, there's an extreme to servitude. It's called sacrifice. It's not a popular word in our society, in our version of Christianity, if you will.
Right? It's kind of a dirty word. Our version of Christianity is all about prospering and having blessings and living this awesome life. Too blessed to be stressed, right? How are doing, brother?
Oh, everything's great. I'm doing so good. Jesus didn't think that. Jesus said, In this world, you'll have trouble. Jesus actually equated sacrifice with love.
And that success is not a picture of all the worldly things in your life. That that doesn't mean that you are favored and blessed by God. It's deeper than that. And Jesus knew that. Look at what Jesus writes in John-15:13.
Greater love has no 1 than this, that someone laid down his life for his friends. That's exactly what he did. Right? Even when we were in our mess and there was nothing we could offer him. He showed his love for us and that while we were still sinners, we were in open rebellion against him, he died for us.
That's sacrifice. And, guess what? He's not ashamed of it. He is proud of that sacrifice. He's proud to wear the scars of that sacrifice.
And, when we hear the stories of Jesus visiting the disciples after he rose from the dead, he's in his glorified body And yet, he still has the holes in his hands and the piercing in his side. Doubting Thomas actually has to put his fingers in the holes in order to believe. Have you ever asked yourself, why? Why does Jesus still have the holes? I mean, this guy has healed the sick, cleansed the leper, raised the dead.
He himself has raised from the dead. Why does he still have these scars? Surely, He could bind up these wounds, right? But, as Isaiah prophesied, He was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities.
Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace. And, by his wounds, we are healed. We are healed. We are still healed. And we are still healed because he still wears those scars.
The apostle John gets this crazy vision of the future when he's in heaven. It's Revelation-5. If you've never read it, you have to read it. And, he's literally in heaven in the throne room. He's at the throne of God and there's millions and millions and millions of angels all around this throne and all these creatures and beings that are worshiping the King of Kings.
And, John says, I saw a lamb standing in the midst of the throne that looked as though it had been slain. In the future, in heaven, Jesus still wears the scars. Because it's the price that he paid for his bride and that's eternal and so is your salvation. He still wears the scars. Amen.
Thank you, God. You know, most of us will not have to actually lay down our lives physically for others here. But, a lot of people lay down their will, their plans, their desires. 1 could say they laid down their lives. This has been no more evident for me in my life than with my parents that are in the back there.
They have sacrificed so much for me and my siblings who are also back there. They've sacrificed everything, money, time, effort, all these things to raise us in the things of God, to teach us the things of God, and to give us everything that they could. I can never fully thank them for that, that sacrifice. You know, I'm not a parent but you'll hear parents say things like, Man, once you have kids, your life is over. Right?
It's not about you anymore now that you have kids. Well, it's the same thing in Christianity. It's not about you anymore. We lay down our lives for the sake of the gospel. That's right.
*1 John-3:16*. Look at what John writes, the same guy that had that vision. By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. A good friend encourages, holds others accountable. A good friend serves others.
And, a good friend sacrifices, lays down their lives. Before I wrap up, I wanna go back to John-15:13. And, the band, you can start coming up. Can you put on the screen there, yeah, John-15:13 through 15? That'd be great.
Greater love has no 1 than this, to lay down one's own life for one's friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. 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.
Guys, that's huge. Okay? Only Abraham and Moses in the Old Testament were called friends of God. And here, Jesus says, Anyone who does as I command is a friend of God. Well, what did he command?
Go back to verse 12, please. My command is this, love each other as I have loved you. That's huge. Love each other as I have loved you. How did he love us?
Verse 13, greater love has no 1 than this, than to lay down his life for his friends. Wow. Are you guys seeing this yet? Jesus says that we are to love the way that he loved. Jesus loved in that he laid down his life for his friends.
And then, in verse 14, he says that we are his friend. Oh, he's right. Therefore, Jesus calls us to lay down our lives for him. That's right. That's Christianity.
That we lay down our lives for him. Just as Jesus laid down his life for us. That's relationship. That is *covenant*. Covenant on both sides, not covenant from Jesus and consumer from us.
That's covenant on both sides. Everyone, please bow your heads and close your eyes. Our love for others flows from our love from the father, from Jesus, from the Holy Spirit. Jesus, thank you for for showing us the way to do this. Thank you for showing us what it is to encourage and hold accountable, what it is to serve.
Even the son of man came not to be served, but to serve others and to give his life as a ransom for many. Thank you for your sacrifice, Jesus. Help us to lay down our lives for you as you have for us. As Romans-12 talks about that that we would present our bodies as a **"living sacrifice"** to God. We do that this morning.
If there's anyone in here that can't call Jesus friend, do it now. You hear it all the time, you're "not promised tomorrow". We've taken that for granted. You see, the apostles lived with an immediacy where they were not promised tomorrow. They knew that and they lived their life that way.
*God*, help us to have that same level of immediacy in our lives knowing that we're not promised tomorrow. Don't put it off till tomorrow. Everyone pray this together with me, please. God, you can have it all. Take my life.
Take my sin. Take my sin. My future is yours. Create in me a new heart and empower me to walk out this life in you, loving others as you have loved me. In Jesus' name we pray.
Thank you for tuning in today to the "Real Church podcast". I pray that you walk away from today encouraged with a deeper understanding of how much God loves you. If you'd like to connect with us, we can't wait to reach out to you and "pray for you". You can go to www.realchurch.us/connect. And then also, if you would like to give to what God is doing in and through our ministry, you can do so at www.realchurch.us/giving or you can text any amount to 84321.
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