Friend Of God

Well, we have opportunity to make confession each Sunday, and I would encourage anyone who is here that has not done this. We don't have an official church role or church membership, but if you are here and you want to be under brotherhood, submitting one to another, in the fear of God, and also to the elders here, elder at this point, then we encourage you to come and share your testimony. I was on the road to Damascus, and how Paul shared his testimony wherever he went.

So we'd like to hear your testimony of how you came to the Lord Jesus. We feel that your salvation puts you in the body of Christ, the local body, and if you're willing to submit to the elders there, then all we need to know is you're converted. You have a testimony, faith in the Lord.

So we open this up for you to come any time on Sunday and say, hey, I want to share my testimony, my conversion. So you can do that whenever you feel the right to do it. Okay, let's turn in our Bibles to John chapter number 15.

I'm going to do a little drawing here while you're turning. I should have done this a little earlier, but I didn't. Well, I've been enjoying meditating and studying this passage, and it's all, you know, all of this blends together.

It's not something that we take piece by piece, but it's all a part of a thought process. And I just want to review that thought process with you. First of all, here this morning, we remember in chapter 14 that the Lord is taking some time to bring out this connection that he says he has with the Father.

I am in my Father, my Father is in me, and we have this connection, and because of that, I'm able to do these works that you see me do. But he says there's a day coming in John 14, 20, where this connection is going a little further down to the church by the presence of the Holy Spirit, and I'm going to give my people the Holy Ghost, the third person of the Godhead, and we're all going to be connected. And the church is going to do even greater works than I have done because of that connection.

So we spent time on that, and you're going to see that connection all the way through here these next couple of chapters. We'll even see it here this morning. Then we went on to chapter 15, and remember Jesus is walking through the Kidron Valley and probably sees vineyards all over.

And as he's walking through the Kidron Valley, chapter 15, he talks about I am the true vine, and my Father is the husband and every branch in me. So he makes an analogy here out of nature. He says my Father is the husband, and I am the vine, and you are the branches, and we're all in this thing connected.

And this is a one, this is the one, this is oneness, this is unity. We are connected to each other, and we learned in John 15 verses 1 through 8 that that connection is done for the sake of fruit, fruit in your life, much fruit. And that fruit has a purpose if you look at John 15 verse 8, herein is my Father glorified that you bear much fruit, so shall you be my disciples.

So God connects us by the Holy Spirit to this river. Remember we talked about the day of Pentecost when this mighty rushing wind came down to the church, and that rushing wind, that river, the Holy Spirit of God is able to connect us and to produce fruit. The fruit of the Spirit is, he goes on to talk about all those fruits.

It's not something that we can muster up. And so we've come now to verse number 9, and I'm going to go down, if you're Lord willing, to verse number 16, and the question that the Lord brings up here is, what is this fruit? What is the fruit, the practical application of this fruit? So we're going to look at some of the fruit of being connected to the vine. So let's have a word of prayer, and then we'll consider the fruit.

Heavenly Father, we thank you again for the Word of God, and thank you that we can come to it and gain instruction, and Lord, I pray for all of us here, that your children, that we could hear your Word and hear what the Spirit of God is saying to each one of us, and Lord, even as we've heard already this morning, that our Christianity would move past theology and what we know to being empowered by the Spirit of the Lord, and that we could live out a life that is truly full of fruit, a life that is great works, Lord, and things that you would desire for us through the glory of God. And so, Lord, remove those impediments from us that are hindering us, that are grieving the Spirit or quenching the Spirit of God, and Lord, open our eyes today to the truth again and edify us. We pray in Jesus' name.

Amen. So, we have this natural analogy of a vine and branches, and you and I are these little branches. The Lord is the whole vine, and the Father is the husband, and because of this connection that we have now, we are supposed to be fruitful to the glory of God, and I trust that your life is a life of fruitfulness.

But the Lord is going to begin to talk about some of this fruit, and specifically, He's going to mention the greatest fruit of all, and I want to emphasize here this morning that there is a greatest fruit, and that He begins here in verse number nine, and much of this passage talks about, as a matter of fact, it mentions this word nine times in these next eight verses, but the word is love. Of course, when the Bible talks about the fruit of the Spirit, what's the first fruit of the Spirit? The fruit of the Spirit is, number one, what? Love. Love.

Love is the greatest of all the fruits. It is the fruit of the Spirit of love. The Lord mentions this word a number of times here.

I want to start reading. Let's take these first two verses here. Verse nine, As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you.

Continue ye in my love. If you keep my commandments, you shall abide in my love, even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in His love. Verse 13, Greater love hath no man than this, than a man lay down his life for his friends.

Verse 17, These things I command you, that you love one another. Now, just think about this for a minute. God is called love.

1 John. God is love. It's one of the greatest attributes of His nature.

He is love. He loved His Son, His beloved Son. His Son loved us.

He gave His life for us, and that love is flowing down through the vine, and you're the branches, and the supreme fruit that ought to flow out of every one of our lives is this idea of love. And you notice here again the connection. Verse number nine, As the Father hath loved me, as I have received the Father's love, so have I loved you.

And He's going to go on to say, Now, since I love you, you love one another. So this love is going from the Father, down to the Son, and down to the Holy Spirit that indwells His people, and His people that spread love. Praise the Lord for that.

As I have loved you, even so you ought to love one another. So as we're connected to the vine, one of the great, or I should say the greatest fruit that comes forth from us is the fruit of love. I'm going to read to you a passage in Matthew 22, verse number 34, starting there.

But when the Pharisees had heard that He had put the Sadducees to silence, they were gathered together. Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him and saying, Master, what is the great commandment of the law? Master, what is the supreme commandment? I You all know the answer here. Jesus said to him, Thou shalt love.

Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy strength, with all thy mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. So Lord, what is the great commandment? There are many commandments, but what is the greatest of them all? And he says to love the Lord thy God.

And then he says, the second is likened to it. Thou shalt love. Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.

On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. And so when Jesus is asked about the great commandment, what is it? He mentions the two love commandments. Thou shalt love the Lord your God with all your heart, and you should love your neighbor as yourself.

And you see, I had two hangers up here, and I know I'm not the greatest artist in the world, but those two hangers represent those two commandments. And Jesus says that all the law hangs on two love commandments. It hangs on them.

And that's why love is so important, because everything hangs on love, on a spirit of love. And so if you go through your Bible, and I encourage you to maybe do this sometime, if you go through your Bible, and every commandment you see in the Bible will either hang on love God with all your heart, or it will hang on love your neighbor as yourself. Every commandment is pushing you in either one of two directions.

And so when Moses came down from the mountain, he carried how many tables? Two tables. One, maybe on his right hand, this is how you love God with all your heart, the first four commandments. And on the other hand, he had another tablet.

This is how you love your neighbor as yourself, those two tablets. And here's something beautiful about that. You know, God said, and I think it was mentioned here this morning, that he wrote with his finger on tables of stone his commandments.

But in the new covenant, he's going to write them in the fleshly tables of the heart. And so by the power of the spirit of God, you ought to have these tablets written in your heart. You don't need an external law.

You don't need those tablets to read. You have those tablets written in your heart by the spirit of the living God in the new covenant. And so love ought to come out of us, and I say it supernaturally, because we have, how about this one? The love of God is shed abroad in your heart by the Holy Ghost, which is given unto you.

Amen. And so when the Holy Ghost was given, the love of God was shed abroad in each one of our hearts. And so we are in connection to the Father and to the Son, and love flows down from Him, who is love, to Christ.

Then it flows to us by the Holy Spirit. And then, Lord willing, out of us, in the power of the spirit, to one another. And so we are able to love one another.

That's where you get this idea of the letter of the law and the spirit of the law. You know, the letter of the law says, love your brother. So I say, well, it says I have to love him, so I'm going to try to love him in my own strength.

That's the letter of the law. Then God said, well, I'm going to write that law in your heart and give you my spirit and enable you by the shedding of my love into your heart to want to love him. Amen.

And to be motivated to love him from within. You've heard people say this, I don't have to do it, I get to do it. And that's what Christianity ought to be, not a have to.

His commandments ought not to be grievances. His commandments ought to be a pleasure to us. We desire to do them.

I'd like you to turn with me, and I know I could talk a long time about love and there's many aspects of love, but turn with me to Romans chapter 13. I'm just going to ask you to turn to a couple of places this morning. In Romans chapter 13, starting in verse number 8. Oh no man anything but to love one another.

For he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law. For this, thou shalt not commit adultery. Listen, if you love your brother, you won't commit adultery with his wife.

Thou shalt not kill. If you love your brother, you won't kill him. Neither will you hate him.

Because the Bible says hatred is murder. Thou shalt not steal. You'll not take his property.

You'll not take his reputation with slanderous words. You'll not steal from him. Thou shalt not bear false witness.

You'll not lie about him. Thou shalt not covet. You'll not desire what he has.

And if there be any other commandment, any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. Love worketh no ill to its neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.

So all the law hangs on two love commandments. And if you look at any commandment in the Bible, here you have the last five or six of those tablets. The one tablet here, how do you love your neighbor? You want to know how to love God? Read the first four.

Have no other gods before? Don't take his name in vain. Honor the Sabbath. Keep it holy.

That's how you love God. And here's how you love your neighbor. 1 John chapter 3, the same John that wrote this gospel, verse 14 says, we know we have passed from death unto life because we love the brethren.

Here's how I know I'm a Christian, because I have within me the love of God shed abroad in my heart, and I find myself loving God's children. Amen. You can love the people of God today.

If any man loved the world, the love of the Father is not in him. And so we know that we have passed from death unto life because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death.

Whosoever hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him. So here's one way to know that you're a Christian. 1 John talks about is, do I really love God's people? Is that the people I like to be around? Is Sunday when we come together in church, is that my favorite time? Because I get to hang around with the people who love God, the people who love His Word, and I love to be among them.

That's your testimony you're in a good place. Because you have a spirit within you that loves to be around God's children. Well, this love ought to go beyond the brethren, and Brother David mentioned a little bit about that.

It ought to go to those that are in love with the world, and the rest of chapter 15, we're going to talk some about that next Sunday. But this love doesn't just go to the brethren, go to God's people. John 3, 16 says, God so loved the world.

So this love extends out from just the church here, just the people of God, and extends out into the world. Remember the lawyer who asked Jesus one day, who is my neighbor? And Jesus said, well, let me tell you who your neighbor is. And he gives him a parable about a certain man who went down to Jericho and fell among thieves, and this Samaritan came by and had compassion on this tall stranger, and bound him up, and took him to an inn, and gave him some money to take care of him.

And Jesus said, now this is your neighbor, and this is how you show compassion and love toward people. So this love ought to go beyond the church. You know, I know there's many people who can love people in here.

The question is, really, can you love people out there? You know, Jesus said, what thank you. You know, the Pharisees and the Republicans do this. What thank you if you do good to them that do good to you.

What thank you if you love them that love you, because even sinners do the same. But here's the real test. Do you love your enemies? Do you love them that persecute you? Do you love them that despitefully use you? Are you praying for them? Are you pleading for them? Do you have compassion for their soul? And Jesus saw the multitudes.

He was moved with compassion upon them. And so biblical love ought to not only love the brotherhood, but also have some compassion for the world. And that's why we're encouraged by the Lord to go into all the world with a compassionate message.

Amen. And that message is one we ought to confess. The gospel of the Lord Jesus.

And you'll see this in John chapter 15. Jump down to John 15 verse 26 if you're there in that chapter. But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me, and you also shall bear witness, because you have been with me from the beginning.

He's going to talk about how the world's going to hate you, but you're going to love that world and you're going to bear witness to it. You're going to bear witness to it in the gospel. And we'll talk about that next week.

So how are we to respond to that world that hates us? Well, we're to love them. And to do good to them. You know how Jesus was on the cross, he had that world out there mocking and ridiculing him, and he said, Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.

This is one of the problems with Pharisees. This is one of the problems with the Jewish people. They had a love for the people within their little group, but outside of that group they despised them.

They despised people. They had no principle within their heart that moved them to compassion, to a world that was lost. And yet Jesus had compassion.

Oh, he loved, the Bible says he loved his disciples, those that were a part of his own group. He loved them unto the end, but he also loved the world. Well, I want to read to you, I know I spend a lot of time on this subject of love.

There's a lot of things we could talk about. But here's the importance of love, and you all probably have these verses memorized. I'd like to read them.

1 Corinthians 13, make a comment on a little bit of it. Though I speak with the tongues of men and angels, and have not charity, that's love, I am become as a sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal. In other words, I can have great speech and I can prophesy and do wonderful things, but if it's not coming or there's not a heart where the Spirit of God is producing love and compassion, it profits nothing.

Though I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and knowledge, though I have all faith so that I can remove mountains, those are all good things. And have not charity, I am nothing, because charity is the top of the line. It's the most important.

And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned and have not charity, it profits me nothing. So, charity is very, very important. This is far more important than all the other commandments in the Scripture.

Charity, love the Lord your God, love your neighbor as yourself. Now, he defines it. Charity suffers long and is kind.

Here's what it is. Charity suffers long with people and is kind. You know, it's one thing.

I find myself with my little children, these two little guys, I don't suffer very long and oftentimes don't find myself being real kind. And I see some nasty things. Charity suffers long and is kind.

Kindness. Charity envies not. Charity does not desire what others have.

Charity volunteers not itself, is not puffed up. Charity does not lift itself above other people. Charity does not behave itself unseemly or in a dirty or evil way.

It seeks not her own. It's not selfish. It's not easily provoked.

Does not anger quickly. Thinks no evil. Has no evil motive or intent.

Has no evil imagination or desire. Rejoices not in iniquity. Does not rejoice in sin.

But rejoices in truth. Bears all things. Believes all things.

Hopes all things. Endures all things. That's what charity is.

At least what God says it is. I don't think there's any better definition than that. How do you find yourself in that list of charity? Well, if you're led of the Spirit and you're filled with the Holy Spirit, you're going to see that in your life.

So love. The Lord starts out here in John 15 with this idea of love. And I think if you went to your Bible and looked up the word love and charity, you'd find over 200, 250 times love and charity are mentioned.

You probably can't read too many of the chapters without someone talking about love. Because love is so important. It's the great commandment of the law.

Back to John 15 here, and I want to read again verse 9. As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you. Continue ye in my love. If you keep my commandments, you shall abide in my love, even as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love.

Now there's a couple of words here. I like to do some word studies every once in a while. But three words in chapter 15 that are different English words, but they're the same Greek word.

Brother Ben probably knows that, and the Greek scholars here. Hannah, listen. But the word abide, and the word continue, and the word remain are all the same Greek word.

So when Jesus says here in verse 9, As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you. Continue in my love. You could say abide in my love.

You could say remain in my love. In verse 10, if you keep my commandments, you shall abide in my love. You could substitute remain in my love.

You could substitute continue in my love. And these words are used many times here in John 15. How do you continue in his love? How do you abide in his love? Jude verse 21 says keep yourselves.

It's always an interesting verse. Keep yourselves in the love of God. So we're encouraged here to abide in his love.

How do you keep yourself in the love of God? I'm sorry? That's what it says. Look at verse number 10 here. What it says, if you keep my commandments, you shall abide in my love, even as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love.

Again, he compares it to this. I kept my Father's commandments and I abide in his love. Even so, you, if you keep my commandments, you shall abide in my love.

Now, I know there's been a lot of theological debate about this, but you know the love of God is both unconditional and it is conditional. You notice in verse 10 the if. If means there's a condition.

God's love is both conditional and his love is unconditional. Let me give you an example of unconditional love. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son.

You know, he came to this world and the world didn't do him anything. There was no conditions he laid out. He simply said, I'm going to choose to love this world.

Nobody may respond to that. But I'm going to choose unconditionally to love the world. That is the unconditional love of God.

No conditions attached. And nature teaches you this. Mom and Dad, when that baby is born, that baby does nothing for you, but somehow you just love the baby unconditionally.

You love the baby. And so there is an aspect of God's love that is unconditional. God loves this world, no conditions.

But, here's something to think about, but your experiencing that love is conditional. Your experiencing that love is conditional. For example, God wants to pour out his love.

The Spirit is love. He wants to love us fully and without any restraint. However, until you come to faith in Jesus Christ and repentance from your sin, you're not going to experience the fullness of his love.

I mean, people who are lost, God loves them. But you know what the Bible says? He that believeth not the Son, the wrath of God abideth on him. It's not a good place to be.

And so in one way, God can express his unconditional love and yet his love be conditional based upon my response to it. And so all of us have experienced this. For 19 years, someone could have told me, God loves you.

And that's true. I didn't do anything to expect him to love me, but he loved me. Unconditional.

Jerry, you can curse me. Jerry, you can go out and sin and do whatever you want, but I will love you. Unconditional.

So then I came to the Lord and I experienced a much different aspect of love. I experienced a relationship with him, a closeness with him. And that love, however, was conditional.

I needed to believe on his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. I needed to walk and keep his commandments to experience the fullness of his love. And that's what Jesus is talking about here.

So God's love is unconditional. He loves the world. But only those who express faith in Jesus experience the fullness of his love.

And you look at some of the passages in the Bible. He pours his rain and sun on the just and who else? On the unjust. God loves people who curse him.

And he's blessing them with rain. He's blessing them with the sun. Those fields out there.

I've noticed that unbelievers' fields grow just as well usually as the believers' fields. God is loving people. But I'll tell you what, if you want to really experience the fullness of his love, get saved and get converted to Christ.

And you'll experience a much deeper experience of love. And so it's both conditional and unconditional. Here in verse number 10, he is teaching us his conditional love.

Now I liken it to this way. I like the illustrations that you'll think of every day of your life. So I'm going to put this one in your head so you'll think about it every time you do this.

So you get in the shower. Hopefully you take a shower daily, weekly, monthly. When you get in the shower, this wonderful warm water is flowing out of that shower head.

And you can get under that and you can, like I do for a long time, just enjoy that hot water on my back and just stand there and enjoy the shower. Or I can step a foot to the side and get out from underneath the shower head. Now the shower head is still going.

The love is still flowing. I'm just outside of it. I am not in a place where I can experience the warmth and the relaxation of being under that warm shower water.

So the love of God, for a child of God, he has so much for you that he wants to bathe you in his love. But if you're not willing to walk and keep his commandments, you're going to be stepping to the side of all he wants for you. So his love is conditional.

And the Lord says, listen, if you want to experience and abide in my love, you need to walk in obedience to me. Keep my commandments. Keep yourselves in the love of God.

You know, parents, you all experience this. You love your children. It's just natural.

But you know that you'd love to be able to love them a whole lot more if they would just walk in obedience. Maybe some of us have children that are outside of the fold, and you love them. You love them, but you can't give them the fullness of your love because they're outside of your ability to love.

Right? And then there's a child who's obedient, who's honoring you, who's doing the best they can, and they're under the shower head. They daily have your love, attention, and your affection, and oh, you would love to give that to the other one, but you can't. And that happens in our families.

And so we move away from the love of God. So the Bible says to abide, or to remain, under his love. I remember the story of the old farmer who married his wife.

You know, when they were young, they got in their pickup truck, and she would sit right next to him, you know. They'd drive down those country roads. They were in love.

You know, he'd put his hand around her. Now they're 70 years old, driving in that pickup truck. She looks over to the husband.

She's now over by the door on the passenger side. She looks over to the husband and said, Honey, I remember, you know, when we were just close, I would sit there beside you, and everything was just fine. She was kind of wanting to blame him.

He turned back to her and said, I mean, who moved? I'm still here. I'm right behind the steering wheel where I was 50 years ago. You're the one who moved.

You know, the Bible says sometimes people lead their person up. They lead. That doesn't mean, you know, that God doesn't love them.

God does love them, but they move themselves outside of the fullness of God's expression of love. Listen, God wants to love you and pour out his blessing upon you. Do you agree with me on that? And so we need to stay.

Stay here in the love of God. Verse number 11. Let's keep going here.

These things have I spoken unto you that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full. Now, what's the second fruit? The fruit of the Spirit is love. What's the next one? Joy.

Joy. So here the Lord brings up this idea of joy. Joy is the second fruit.

Joy comes from living in obedience and staying in the love of God. I mean, you get underneath that shower head and just bathe in the love of God, and you say, yes, Lord, whatever you want me to do, I'm here to do the will of God just like Jesus was. I'm going to do the things that please you, and I'm going to fast in the love of God.

And when you do that, your joy is full. Something happens within you, and the Spirit of God just kind of bursts in your heart, and you have joy unspeakably. Now, let's face it.

Much of the church today is lacking in joy. You know, people out there in the world, that's one thing they love to see is people who have real joy. Joy.

One of the reasons why we as a church don't have joy is because we're not really underneath the shower head. We're not really walking in total obedience. And there are things in our life that we're compromising.

There are issues in our life that we're unwilling to lay aside, and we know these things are happening, and we're unwilling to surrender every area of our life and get underneath there and say, Lord, I will be done. I want to live my life to please you. Joy cannot be manufactured.

So joy. Look what it says in verse 11. These things have I spoken unto you, this idea of abiding in my love, that my joy.

Notice it's my joy, Jesus' joy. Jesus said, my joy give I unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full. What's my joy and your joy? Well, my joy is the Holy Spirit of God.

Christ in me. My joy. Let my joy be in you, and if my joy, my Holy Spirit is able to produce joy in your spirit, your joy will be full.

So as you walk in the direction of the Holy Spirit of God, that joy, which is not yours, it's His, it comes from the Holy Spirit, is in you, and that affects your spirit, and your joy will be full. As you live and walk in the spirit, Jesus' joy will fill your heart, and so His joy can be your joy. And I think we ought to experience fullness of joy.

I don't think there's anything more valuable in life than joy and peace. Amen? He says here that my joy might remain in you, that my joy might continue in you. I found this in the ministry of ministering with people.

Many people start out, Brother David, when they make that confession, with joy. They start out with joy, but in 20, 30, 40 years, they're into bitterness. They're into sorrow.

They're into grief. They're into many things that come their way, but the Lord's heart is that that joy might remain, or it might continue with you. But examine our hearts.

Are we more joyful now or when we were first converted? Has that joy that came to you when the Holy Spirit came into your heart, has Jesus' joy remained in you? And if not, you ought to search your heart and find out why not, because it's your inheritance. It is your promised land to live a life that overflows with love, joy, peace, and all the fruits of the Spirit. And if you're not in that, you're being robbed of what's yours.

And I know who's robbing you. By the way, it's not your brother and sister. It's taking your joy.

It's the devil, and it's sin. It's your choices. So joy is doing the will of God, not your own.

Joy is saying, Lord, whatever you want, I'm going to do the will of God. You know where depression comes from? Young people, depression comes from simply living your selfish life. It's selfish.

Selfishness leads you into a pit. So many people today are on drugs, all these medications, because their life is self-centered. Let me give you, you've all seen this.

I've given you this before here. Remember this? An acrostic. What's the last one here? Who remembers? That's right, yourself.

Jesus first, others second, and yourself last. So I want to challenge you, some of you young people. Bible says, taste and see that the Lord is good.

I want to challenge you. I'll give you an experiment. And you adults can do it too.

24 hours is all I'm asking. Just one day in an entire life. Take one day of your life.

When you wake up in the morning, follow this instruction. Jesus today, for 24 hours, you're first. And, Lord, others are next.

I'm going to serve my father and mother. I'm going to serve my siblings. I'm going to just serve people, and I'm going to forget about me.

I'm going to put me at the end of the list. I'm going to put Jesus first, others second, myself last. I'm going to live just 24 hours.

All that. You're going to live 24 hours. Just live 13, 14 hours until you go to bed at night.

And then when you get to bed, sit down and ask yourself a question. Is my joy meter way up because of the life I've lived the last 12 hours? And you'll find that it is. You'll find that in living for him and confessing him, and living for your siblings, living for your parents, just forgetting about yourself, and for 24 hours living in this order, you'll say, I like the way I feel in my heart.

I'm going to try it tomorrow. And hopefully what will happen, you'll taste and see that the Lord is good. And in 20 years, you'll say, Brother Jerry, I started that one day.

I've been doing it now for 20 years. That would be a great testimony, wouldn't it? Maybe some of you are already there. Joy.

Verse 12, this is my commandment that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Let me ask you this, what is the greatest expression of love that a man can give another? Well, the Lord showed us that the greatest expression is to lay down his life.

What is your most valuable possession that God has given you? Who can tell me? The most valuable thing you have. It's not that car out there. And it's not this thing right here, by the way.

What's the most valuable thing you have? What is time linked to? What's that? Your life. That's the most valuable thing you have. Is your life.

My most valuable possession is my life. That's why people are striving to try to save it. Because it's the most valuable thing you have.

Love does not seek his own. If the most valuable thing you have is your life, the greatest sacrifice you can make is to give that most valuable thing up to the Lord Jesus and to your brothers and sisters. Amen? To lose your life for Jesus.

Sacrificing your most valuable possession for him. You know, there in Malachi, at the end of the Old Testament, there that last prophet that was speaking to the people of God, he said to them, you know, you people, you're bringing God the lame sheep. You're bringing him the blind.

And take it to your governor. See if he'll accept it. How can you give such sacrifices to the great king of kings? And I see here about a hundred people.

And each of you have the most valuable thing that you possess is your life. And if God is this great king, the best thing you can do is just give the most valuable thing you have to him. Don't give him the blind and the halt and the lame and the sick.

Just say, Lord, listen, I'm going to give you the most valuable thing in my possession. And that's the greatest act of love. Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friend.

And we can go a number of places. First, John talks about this, about loving your brother. Now, I looked at that verse and I said, no, wait a minute, Lord.

There's a greater love than that, to lay down your life for your enemy. Even when we were sinners, Christ died for us. But I thought about this.

We were not his enemy. We were enemies to him. But he wanted to be our friend.

I think of when Judas came to him that day and went to betray him. Judas was an unbeliever, an imposter, a betrayer. And the Lord said, friend, betray us now, the son of man, with a kiss.

So when you think of the Lord's friends, I think of that unconditional love. All of his people are his friends. And yes, we're going to see here in a minute, there is the conditional aspect of being his friends.

I think of the cross as the... When I was in Bible school, there was a man who came to preach for us and he preached a message. And in that message, he gave the illustration of how the cross is simply a testimony of the Lord crying out to humanity, I want to be your friend. Amen.

I want to be your friend. I don't want to be your enemy. I want to be your friend.

So as God looks upon this world, he desires for this world to be... It's your choice to be my enemy. I don't want to be your enemy. And so I want to love you as my friends.

Greater love is no man can miss than a man lay down his life for his friends. And certainly the Lord laid his life down for each one of us. So what do you lay your life down for? Are we laying down our life for him? Verse 14, this is the conditional aspect of this friendship.

You are my friends if you do whatsoever. I commend you. The more we walk... I love this.

The more we walk in obedience, the deeper the friendship becomes. And Judah read this morning, if we walk in the light, we have fellowship. When you have fellowship with someone, you get to know them.

Amen. You build a friendship. You have very little fellowship with God, you have very little of a friendship.

The more fellowship you have with the Lord, the more friendship you develop. You are my friends if you do whatsoever. I command you.

And I know some of you girls, you can understand this, you have different levels of friendships. You know that one girl, that's the greatest friend that you have. And the Lord is going to talk about this friendship, is you share everything.

Right? Oh, this friend of mine, there's two that everything about me, I've shared everything with them. And then there's other girls, do you have friends? Well, we don't share everything, but we're friends. Well, speaking of sharing everything, look at verse 15.

Henceforth I call you not servants, for the servant knoweth not what his Lord doeth, but I have called you friends. For all the things that I have heard of my Father, I have made known unto you. Here's one of the great benefits of being a friend to the Lord and cultivating a friendship with Him, is that God will reveal His heart, His will, His word to those who are in a close friendship with Him.

Isn't that how you do it? Most of us will not reveal the things upon our heart until we know that someone is a close friend. And that's the heart of the Lord, to reveal to you His will, His purposes. I want to ask you to turn one more time here.

Genesis chapter 18 is a beautiful example of this. As I was thinking about it, I thought about Abraham. Abraham, do you know Abraham is given a title? Anybody know what that title is? A friend of God.

Abraham is said in the Old Testament to be the friend of God. What a good example is Abraham as the friend of God. Certainly Abraham came to God and believed the gospel.

And Abraham also walked with God and was desirous of doing His will and obeying Him. But Abraham is called the friend of God. Genesis chapter 18.

I just want to show you some things here about the Lord's heart toward Abraham, His friend. In verse number 1 it says, And the Lord appeared unto him in the plains, Abraham, in the plains of Mamre. And he sat at the tent door in the heat of the day.

And he lifted up his eyes and looked, and, lo, three men stood by him. And when he saw them, he ran to meet them from the tent door and bowed himself toward the ground. So here's Abraham sitting out in his tent.

And three men start to walk by. Abraham looks over there. The custom wants to go and invite them in.

Travelers. But it's the Lord. Now, let me ask you this.

Why did the Lord walk by Abraham's tent? Isn't there a hundred other ways He could have gone to Sodom? Yeah, there's other ways to get to Sodom. It just so happened that Abraham walked right by, excuse me, the Lord with His angels walked right by Abraham's tent. I think we read through that.

We don't think about it. But why does the Lord walk right by Abraham's tent? Well, there's a reason for it. So Abraham here.

God is going to reveal some things to him. Let's jump down. I'm not going to read the whole story.

Verse number nine. And they said unto him, Where is Sarah thy wife? And he said, Behold, in the tent. And he said, I will certainly return unto thee according to the time of life.

And, lo, Sarah thy wife shall have a son. And Sarah heard it in the tent door, which was behind him. So the Lord is revealing things to Abraham.

Now, Abraham, here's what's going to happen. The Lord is going to appear to Sarah. She's going to have a son.

He's opening up their understanding. But let's keep reading here in verse 16. I like this one.

It says here, And the men arose up from thence and looked toward Sodom. And Abraham went with them to bring them on the way. They're heading to destroy Sodom.

And look at verse 17. And the Lord said, Shall I hide from Abraham the thing which I do? You think about that. Here's the Lord.

He's walking along. And in his heart, he says, You know, I shouldn't hide from Abraham what I'm about to do. Now, everybody else didn't know what was going on.

But he said, I'm going to share with Abraham what I'm about to do here. And he felt like, I shouldn't hide. You know, I shouldn't hide from him because he's my friend.

Abraham is my friend. And I'm about to do something amazing here. And I'm going to destroy Sodom.

And so I'm going to confide in my friend Abraham. I'm not going to hide from him the thing that I'm about to do. He's my buddy.

And then the story goes on here. And Abraham asked the Lord. You know the story.

I was going to read the whole thing. And Abraham says, Hey, are you going to destroy the city if there's 50 righteous? And you know what the Lord says to him? I won't do it. By the way, we're going to go back into John 15.

I'm going to close here in just a few minutes. Three times the Scripture says in this passage, Whatever you ask, I will do it. Isn't it? Remember that? Whatever you ask me.

If you abide in me, my words, whatever you ask, I'll do it. So Abraham, being a friend of God, says, Lord, don't destroy the city for 50. And the Lord says, I'll do it.

He goes down here a little farther. And he says, Peradventure, there'd be lack five of us. Will you destroy it for lack of five? He says, I'll do it.

Ask me. He keeps going on here. He gets down to ten.

Ten. Lord, you won't destroy it for ten. And I'm just thinking, the Lord's saying, Abraham, you're my friend.

I'm telling you all I'm going to do it. I'll answer you. I won't do it for ten.

I wish he had gone down to five or maybe two or one. But I think Abraham was like, I've asked too much already. I've come from 50 to ten.

We'll leave it at ten. But the point is, the Lord is being a friend to Abraham. And Abraham is a friend to the Lord.

And the Lord is showing Abraham. Nobody else knew anything about the destruction of Sodom. There was only one man, Abraham.

But he was a friend. And we ought to have that as a goal in our life, to be a friend to the Lord. You know, I think the Lord desires for you to be a friend.

And if you're a Christian, obviously you're his friend, you're his child. But that friendship can really get deep. That friendship can get so deep that the Lord will reveal things to you he doesn't reveal to anybody else, like he revealed to Abraham.

And I think we ought to desire that. We ought to seek after that. That we can have a friendship with him that when we go to his Word, God just opens it up to us.

Amen? And God is revealing his will. God helps us to see what's coming in this world. And we're a friend of his.

And he communicates with us and shares what he's going to do. So a fruitful life is a life that's living in the love of God underneath the showerhead. Don't step outside of there.

You know, leave ye your first love. Stay underneath. Abide in my love, that your joy might be full.

I want you to be a friend of mine. I want to open up my heart and share with you all the things I would love to share with you. Isn't that fun to have a friendship where you can just... It's enjoyable to share the secrets of your heart.

And that's the relationship that the Lord wants with each one of us. I want to be your friend. And there is a friend that's to get closer than a brother.

And so I know that the world is out there and they're appealing to you. Come out here with us and make friendships with the world. You know, let's get involved in our wisdom out here.

And let's talk politics. Let's talk all this junk out here, this darkness. Let's set your heart this way.

But I want to encourage us all to turn our hearts and say, Lord, I want to be your friend. I want to bathe in your love. I want to have joy in my heart.

And experience what you have for me. And I believe if you'll come to Him that way, you'll see a fruitful life. A fruitful life.

You're attached to the vine. And love and joy will flow out of you. So let's choose that.

Young people choose a 24-hour period. Just say, I'm just going to lay my life totally down. I'm only asking for 24 hours.

Just be done with me and just serve everybody and serve God. Just at the end of 24 hours, how do I feel? All right, we'll close there. May God help us to draw near to Him and walk with Him and have fellowship with Him.

And build a friendship.