Hi, this is Erin Michelle, and welcome to steps to trusting. It is a goal here to meet you where you are in your faith journey. And to encourage you to continue to take steps to trust in God more fully.

[00:00:16]  Hi, everyone. Welcome to the show.  Today, we are going to be talking about friendship with God.

[00:00:25]On the last show. Jillian Wright brought up this topic when she said that she felt the friendship of God in her time of need. And I was really challenged about how she talked about that feeling of friendship and the sweetness that it brings.

[00:00:41]As I have been contemplating friendship with God. I found myself in John 15. In the passage, we are invited to remain in Jesus. It talks about obedience, relationship and friendship with Jesus. It shows us how this obedience and relationship are tied together. And that God invites us to both. Remaining in Jesus invites us to a togetherness with him that is evidenced by our obedience to him.

[00:01:14]I’m going to read the passage for you guys, and I want you to listen for  these themes of obedience and closeness and how it ties into friendship. Here are Jesus’s words in John 15.

[00:01:25] ” I am the true vine and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit, he prunes so it will be even more fruitful. You are already clean because of the word I’ve spoken to you. Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.

[00:01:51] ” I am the vine;  you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I and him, he will be bear much fruit; apart from me. He can do nothing. If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, and thrown into the fire and burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish and it will be given you. This is to my father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

[00:02:27] ” As the father has loved me. So I have loved you now remain in my love. If you will obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my father’s commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and your joy may be complete.

[00:02:48] ” My command is this: love each other as I have loved you.  Greater love has no one than this, that he lays down his life for his friends. You are my friends. If you do what I command.

[00:03:02] ” 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. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit – fruit that will last .  Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. This is my command. Love each other.”

[00:03:29] As you listened to Jesus talk , you can see that Jesus doesn’t just want us to do as he commands separate from a relationship, he shows us his heart and he shows us how even he takes actions because of obedience to his father and the relationship that he has with the father.

[00:03:49]There’s so much that comes up when I read that. And I see that Jesus   invites us to a closeness with him. He says, ” remain in me, and I will remain in you.” It’s this close  relationship. He says, “remain in me…. if a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit.”

[00:04:12]Jesus wants fruit, but Jesus wants closeness with us . He offers us both of those things.

[00:04:20]Jesus doesn’t just want us to do  his command separate from our relationship. He shows us his heart and it’s in verse 15. Where this is most clear. He says “everything that I learned from my father, I have made known to you.” We are invited to obedience alongside of Jesus, revealing his heart to us.

[00:04:43] It is not just in this passage where he reveals his heart to us. Throughout the whole Bible, all of his word, God reveals his heart to his children. Throughout the Bible, God tells us what is good for us. And he tells us what he desires of us.

[00:04:59]One of those desires is right at the conclusion of the passage today.  “This is my command that you love each other.”

[00:05:06]He also tells us things that he wants in our life  in verse eight he says, ” this is to my father’s glory, that you bear much fruit showing yourselves to be my disciples”. He wants us to bear fruit and that fruit evidences that we are his disciples.

[00:05:26]Then in verse 14, he says, “you are my friends. If you do what I command.” Doing what he commands, shows our trust and brings fruit. If we are people who obey Jesus, we hear his words and it matters. The words that he speaks; the words that he has given us should affect us. The words of a friend should affect us. When we know respect and trust someone, their words have weight in our life.

[00:05:59] That’s part of friendship.

[00:06:01]Participating in this type of relationship with Jesus brings fruit. Fruit is evidence of the weight of his voice and our lives. Obedience and relationship with God is not about fear of what will happen if we don’t follow the command. Obedience is about the fact that we trust God enough to obey him. We trust him enough to follow because we know that he knows what is good for us. And also that he wants what is good for us.

[00:06:30]Choosing willfully not to obey is rejecting what Jesus says is good for us. Now, I’m not saying that we won’t make mistakes and disobey what Jesus wants for us. When we do, there’s a promise for that as well. God’s word tells us in 1 John 1:9, ” If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”

[00:06:54]   It is again, and relationship that we turn to him in our failure.  We don’t turn to God because he demands it. We can turn to him because he invites us. We can trust that there is a need because we trust his words. This act of turning and obedience is still about trusting and friendship that brings us to confession. It is about trusting that there is a need to turn from our sin and confess it. Will, we listen to the word of God that reveals his heart to us.  Will we trust his words and respond with obedience?

[00:07:31] Jesus does not just speak the words of friendship. He also takes action of friendship towards us.

[00:07:38] In this passage of John 15, it speaks about what Jesus would soon do after he speaks these very words to his disciples. He says in verse 13, ” Greater love has no one than this, that he laid down his life for his friends.”  Jesus acted out this great love when he died on the cross as a sacrifice for his friends. He acted in friendship and he models friendship by being the most beautiful example of a friend. Jesus lives out the love of a friend for us.

[00:08:13]There is a sweetness that comes in knowing others in this way in seeing love evidenced in how they act towards us.  Jesus invites us to know him through his words that he’s given us in the Bible and through his actions towards us. He doesn’t just command and expect obedience in a disconnected way.

[00:08:36] It’s not just a command, it’s an invitation, it’s an opportunity to know. And to follow him, let’s look again. At first 15, he explains the relationship that God wants to have with us.

[00:08:50]Verse 15. 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.”

[00:09:05] In this first, he explains the relationship that God wants to have with us. He doesn’t ask us to blindly follow. He lets us know his business. We are not commanded obedience by a dictator that is far off. We are invited to follow the heart of one. We can know and trust. We are given a picture into how greatly we are loved, a picture into his heart, and a living example of the very things he asks of us. Jesus does not ask us to do something that he was not willing to do for us.

[00:09:44]Looking at this passage can change how we look at the Bible if we let it. In this passage, it talks about knowing God’s plans and how he has shared that with us. We can look at God’s word at the Bible as getting to know the heart of God, we can look at his commands as knowing what God wants for us, what is good for us? God’s word is a window into knowing him. It’s an invitation to friendship. Will we be called a friend of God?

[00:10:16]I’m going to close us in prayer, dear God, thank you. That you would offer friendship to us. Thank you that you let us know you.  I praise you that you would call us friends. I thank you, that you acted as a friend to us in the actions of dying on the cross Lord to save us for our sins, to invite us to forgiveness and relationship. Lord, I pray that we would desire to look into your word, to know more of who you are. Many times we question and, and wish we understood you.  Lord your ways are not our ways. And so we will not fully understand you. And yet you have allowed us to know you and you have given us a way to get to know you. Father, I pray that we would look at your word, that we would look to see the character of who you are to see your faithfulness to us, to see that, this offer of friendship to the disciples is also an offer of friendship to us.

[00:11:33]Lord, I  desire the sweetness of knowing your presence and feeling your friendship. When I feel alone.  I praise you that we can know so much about you. Give us willing hearts to study your word.

[00:11:48] Lord, may that be a step of faith in our  lives, a step to trusting  a step, to getting to know you more, that we may trust you more.

[00:11:59]It is in jesus’ name that I pray. Amen.

[00:12:03]Thank you so much for joining me today, I would love to connect with you on Instagram or Facebook and have you join this conversation with me more there you can find me at steps to trusting in both of those places.

[00:12:17] If you want to continue looking at this topic, I have included in the show notes, journaling questions, where you can do so.

[00:12:24]Erin: There is also a link there for a free journaling resource to help you look at God’s word alongside some questions and help you think through what is your next step?

[00:12:35] I also wanted to give a quick shout out to my friend, Jim Daugherty, who did the music for the show.

[00:12:41] If you want to hear more music from Jim, you can hear his album, city of God on Apple music, Spotify, or wherever you do your music. If you enjoyed the show today, please hit like and subscribe and share it with a friend so that more people can be encouraged of God’s friendship to us.

[00:12:59]And don’t forget, we are God’s workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. I am praying for you as you keep on stepping blessings, friends.