Friendship Beyond the Transaction

Transcript

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[0:00] Well, now it's time for our sermon, and our sermon is from the Gospel of John, and it's going to sound a little familiar because it's going to be similar to this epistle from John, 1 John. It's John chapter 15, verses 9 through 17, and just a few words of introduction before we begin. The setting of this, and this is such an interesting part of the Gospel of John, is sometimes called the farewell discourse. This is about a third, a third of the entire book is dedicated to one evening between Jesus and his disciples, and he spends that time saying goodbye, giving them advice, you know, just being with them, and this is right before he goes to the cross. So there's a lot of things that he needs to do with them before he goes, and John is sitting there, I don't think he's writing at the time because he was involved, but his memory of this night is so vivid that he's able to write pages and pages and pages of what happened. That night, and it's really a very intimate view. I think I really recommend just reading the whole, that whole section of John that begins, you know, the night before Jesus is betrayed. It's really fascinating. So this is the fair, what we call the farewell discourse, and it's a time for them to be together.

[1:16] He does a lot of things during this time. He washes their feet. He shares a meal. He says this incredible prayer over them and on them, and more things. So if you remember John's life for some time. So if you remember John's life for some time. So if you remember John's life for some time. So if you remember John's life for some time. So if you remember John's life for some time. So if you remember John's life for some time. So if you remember John's life for some time. So if you remember John's life for some time. So if you remember John's life for some time. So if you remember John's life for some time. So if you remember John's life for some time. So if you remember John's life for some time. So if you remember John's life for some time.

[1:48] So if you remember John's life for some time. So if you remember John's life for some time. So if you remember John's life for some time. So if you remember John's life for some time. to tell them something and live in faith or hope that someday they will kind of go, oh, that's what he meant. And that actually happened for me. I lost my father when I was 20 years old. And I think there must have been a few things that he still wanted to say to me that he couldn't, that he didn't have time to. On the night before he died, he says, never forget that I love you. And that was enough. But even later in life, my mom has been dead for seven years now. Even later in my life, now, even now, I'm looking back on those days when they did say things to me and I go, oh, yeah, I'm getting that now more than I got it before. And so these words can stay with you. And this is what's happening in this passage that we're looking at this morning. Jesus has some things that he really needs to tell them before he goes to the cross. He's hoping they're going to get it right away, but he knows they probably won't. And so he's having hope and faith that they will someday get it. And indeed, they do, because they're able to write about it,

[2:53] and they're able to live it out. And what he wants to tell them in this particular passage is what true friendship is. He wants to tell them what true friendship really is. And we're going to get into what that means. So we're going to look at that. And we're also going to continue to look at words in the original language and discuss how translators make decisions. We started some of that last week. I think it's interesting, and it's worth us looking at again today. But also, I want you to know, get ready to chat. So put some notices in the, get ready to get your keyboard out or whatever, however you get things into the chat log, because I want us to be interactive again today. And so I'm going to ask you three times during the sermon to type something into there. So be ready. And I love it when you do that. And I want you to know that when you do that, you're building up the body, you're sharing with others, and you're giving all the rest of us insights. And I think that's valuable. So with that introduction, let's go to our reading. It's John chapter 15, and we'll start at verse nine.

[3:53] It says this, As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love. I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.

[4:18] This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing. But I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father. You did not choose me, but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit. I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father. Fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name. I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for your word. And we ask that you would add your blessing to it. In Jesus' name. Amen.

[5:17] So here are the things that Jesus really wants them to know. This is the list of things that he wants to tell them before he dies. He hopes they'll get it now. He knows they might not get it till later. Here are the things, in short, that he really wants them to know. He says, I love you, and you are then to love each other. You need to love each other. This is your community needs to be marked by love. And then he says, what does love for another person look like? It looks like self-sacrifice. It looks like self-sacrifice for the sake of another person. Was he talking about himself? Yes, because he was about to go to the cross, but he was also talking about them. They needed to love each other like he loved them. And the way he was about to love them was to sacrifice himself for them. This is what a friend does in his definition. And then he says there's a difference. There's a difference between a servant and a friend. We'll get into that. And then he says, I chose you for a purpose. You have to remember what this purpose is. I chose you for a purpose. I chose you for a purpose. I chose you for a purpose. I chose you for a purpose. I chose you for a purpose, which is for you to be productive, for you to bear fruit for the kingdom.

[6:29] So what I'm thinking here is that's a lot. There are actually five sermons here. This is almost like the Sermon on the Mount. You could take one verse at a time and preach on this for five weeks, but we're not going to do that here. We're just going to focus on one thing, and that is friendship.

[6:45] About friendship. About what does it mean to be a true friend. So Jesus is defining it for them, but there's also a difference between a friend and a friend. And so Jesus is defining it for them, but there's also a difference between a friend and a friend. And so Jesus is defining it for them, for them. So Jesus is defining it for them. And so Jesus is defining it for them. So if you look at some how you met. So the name of your best friend from high school or college. And then in three words or less how you met. So the name of your best friend from high school or college. And then in three words or less how you met. So the name of your best friend from high school or college. And then you met and I'm going to do it myself right now. In fact, I hope my friend is watching. We will find out. Let's see. So I'm going to type in here. Jim Toffol was my best friend in high school and we met. Three words. I really limited myself in physics class.

[7:52] We're still friends. All right. Good. So I put mine in. Let's have you guys put yours in. How did you, who's your best friend from high school or college? And in three words or less, how you met. All right. It's great to have friends. While you're doing that, I want to talk a little bit about the background of how people understood friendship at that time. There was an Old Testament context for friendship. There was an Old Testament context for friendship. There was an Old Testament context for friendship in the Jewish world. It's different from other parts of the world. There's different cultures that have different views on things. And in the Old Testament, when you read the word friend, it may have a slightly different meaning than you think. It often, not always, it often means somebody who is a trusted counselor. So that friend is a friend who gives you good advice. And in a deliberative society like Judaism was, that was an important function for a friend to do, to give you advice, give you counsel, give you wise counsel. That's what a good, trusted friend would do. But it doesn't really point to a lot about intimacy or closeness or having one heart like the other or anything like that. Now, there are friendships in the Old

[9:08] Testament. Absolutely. And the really, I think the most notable one is this beautiful friendship between David and Jonathan, who was the son of King Saul. And their friendship is quite interesting, quite beautiful. I think because David, in a way, is a type or sort of a precursor or a messianic figure like Jesus, but not quite like Jesus, because he's human, completely human, that David is also foreshadowing in his relationship with Jonathan what Jesus is saying, in a way, about friendship. So in the Old Testament, friendship tended to be a little more transactional, at least the way it was understood. It was somebody who gave you good advice. And also, this is what Jesus says to people is, you know, you have friends, so you invite them to a dinner because you know that someday they'll invite you back. And so your friend was not somebody who gave you nothing, something for nothing. They gave you something for something. They were in the same level with you in a hierarchy. And so, again, a friendship was kind of transactional. You give me, I give you, we keep it even, we protect what we have. And that's kind of what friendship looked like. Now, Jesus lived in another cultural context. Before we get to that, let's take a look at our chat log, because I want to, I've seen the thing

[10:29] scrolling up. Let's see. This is great. Sergey Neksharov. This is from Daniel. Best friend from high school. Daniel, you didn't do three words. Nobody's doing three words. Nobody pays attention or does anything I say. No, it's all right. It's okay. This is good. He was a neighbor from the same apartment building. Good. Michael Liu had a friend named Rachel Lin, grew up in Sunday school together and also played violin together since we were four years old. Still friends. Brian says, Larry Paddock met while buying chemicals to make rocket fuel. That's awesome. You could tell you had a kindred spirit because you were buying rocket fuel at the same time. Rosemary Kelling. We met in fifth grade when we were sent to a special school and needed to make all new school friends. Good. Krista Nelson says, Joyce InterVarsity Christian Fellowship. Daniel says, oh, this is from... Divya has a friend named Sunita in seventh grade. Thank you, Divya is the only one who's following directions so far. Okay, good. Natalie says, Audrey Pua. Now Chan was assigned her as my accountability partner for Ivy Leadership. I didn't like her at first. That's so true. Some friends, you start off as enemies and then you become frenemies and then you become friends,

[11:43] right? That's great. Yuki says, Jenny, when I moved into our dorm, we lived across from each other. Renee says, Becky lived in the same dorm, went to Bible study. Good. So you guys, this is great. So friendship. So I mentioned the Old Testament view of friendship and the other cultural context that Jesus and his disciples lived in was what we would call the Hellenistic context. Hellenistic context is marked by the spread of Greek culture following the conquest of Alexander the Great, and he conquered vast swaths of land, including where they were living then, Israel, Palestine, and left behind Greek colonies, Greek cultures, and things like that. And Greek philosophy was thus accessible to it. And so the Greek and Roman view of friendship was a little more expansive and a little bit more like what we think of as friendship. Although it was still transactional, there was still this sense that we have friends because it benefits us to have friends, not we have friends because we could give them something that we don't expect in return. But there's a more developed idea of friendship in Greek and Roman culture, and probably because they devoted themselves more to philosophy, and so they wanted to catalog everything in life,

[13:01] including what friendships looked like. And so there's a famous myth, the Greek myth, about Achilles. I've mentioned this before, and he had this friend named Patroclus. And there are several accounts of how Achilles died and what happened to him after he died, but it was his wish, or at least it was his wish, to have a friend like Achilles. And so he had this friend named Patroclus, somebody's wish, that in two of his accounts of how he died, his remains were commingled with Patroclus. In one account of his death, his bones are commingled with Patroclus's bones, so they're buried together in eternity. In another version of his death, both he and Patroclus are cremated, and their ashes are both kept in the same urn. And this was kind of this ideal of friendship, like we are bosom buddies to the end, right? We're these friends that are inseparable even in death. And so there's kind of in the sort of the literature, the culture of Greek and Roman society, there was even maybe a higher ideal of friendship that was enduring, yet still a bit transactional. Okay, so a question that we might have is how much did this affect Palestine and Jesus and the disciples? They were actually at the crossroads of two very

[14:17] interesting and important cultures, and that's the first one. The first one is the first one, which is the end. So if you look at some of the end end end end end end end end end end end end end end Peter, he says, these are Gentiles, but they're speaking in tongues and they have the Holy Spirit. We have to baptize them. And so, and in other places, Peter gets a vision, as you may remember, that the dietary laws have to be suspended so that Gentiles, by which we would say Greeks or people in the Hellenistic culture, could be integrated into the church. And so these cultures exist around Jesus and the disciples. And one of the cultural artifacts is what does friendship look like, right?

[15:21] At that time, the Jews tried to keep Hellenistic culture at bay. It's not easy to do when it's all around you. The money was written in Greek. They spoke Greek. The New Testament was written in Greek. They couldn't leave their house without running into a Greek person. They would usually cross the street to not be on the same side as them, but it was always around them. And so there's no doubt that Greek culture and economics, and art, and literature would kind of come in. And so the interesting question is, from what cultural context is Jesus speaking about friendship, right? And this extends to other things besides friendship.

[16:01] So when Jesus here is talking about friendship, I think the question is, is it Judaism's friendship? If you want to kind of put it that way. Or is it Hellenistic? Hellenistic friendship. And if you want to answer that question in the chat, you can, but I'm going to answer it almost right away, because that's how this thing is moving along.

[16:26] Or something else. Yeah, it might be something else. So go ahead and put your thoughts in there. Judaism, Hellenism, or something else. Put your thoughts in the chat log. So, here's the thing. Here's the thing about Jesus.

[16:47] He is in two cultures that are in a sort of a crossroads, or a melding, meshing place. And, but he's also the incarnation of God in man, which is interesting. So that means he lives in culture. He doesn't separate himself from it. He has to operate within it. And as you watch in the New Testament, you see him easily move between Jewish culture and Gentile culture, Hellenistic culture. And so he does so. He has conversations with all sorts of people. And so in some ways you could say Jesus isn't constrained by the culture that he finds himself in. In fact, he is, he has an interesting sort of position relative to culture. All right, let's see if anybody put anything in here.

[17:35] Oh, we got some more things about friendship. This is Karen. So many dear friends, but my first roommate, Renee Lowen, who we met elementary school at Mount Hermon. Good. And Craig says, Enjoy your time. I enjoyed learning about Jesus together. Oh, no, that's Karen. I asked for three words and then became roommates at Westmont. She was fine, fun, kind and smart. Thank you, Karen. Good. Okay. No one's taking the bait on the second question, but that's okay, because I kind of spoiled it by saying I was going to answer it right away. Here's the deal with Jesus and culture is in some ways he stands while he is in it because he's man. He stands apart from it or over it because he is God in the flesh.

[18:14] And so he may eat Jewish food. He may wear Jewish clothes. He may speak Greek to all the people that he runs into, although sometimes he speaks Aramaic in moments of extreme emotion. He's you can see how I just did that. He can see how he's straddling these two things. But in actuality, he stands apart from it and his posture towards culture. And his posture towards culture. Is that he operates within culture so that he can further his work. But he's also always challenging the culture that he's in. This is important. He's also always challenging the culture that he's in. And he's not afraid to redefine words or relationships out of the wisdom of God, as opposed to in accordance with the culture that he finds himself in. And this passage we have about friendship. Friendship is a perfect example of this. Friendship is not necessarily a transactional thing. It's not just somebody giving you good advice. It's not even being buried in the same urn as them. He says friendship is something altogether different. Friendship is to lay down your life. For your brother or your sister. There's no real definition of friendship like that in other cultures. Now, there are some cultures will have examples of that. But that's not the first thing.

[19:42] There's something that would have come to mind when people talked about friends back then. They would have talked about mutual interests, mutual passions, buying rocket fuel together, things like that. Nowhere would they have said, oh, a friend is one whom I lay down my life for. So Jesus is beginning to chip away at the culture of his time and say, you sacrifice for others. That's what true love looks like. That's what true friendship looks like. If you want to know what that looks like, just wait about eight or nine hours and I will do it for you. I will do it for you myself on the cross. So he's not only teaching, but he's teaching by example and leading.

[20:19] So it's not getting back what you give. It's more than good advice. It's something new. It's a new definition. He's defining his own culture. And he's asking us to live in his culture, not to live in our own all the time. And what's interesting is this correction to the culture that he's in is not unique on the subject of friendship. He does this all the time, all sorts of other ways. You could say that Jesus is always challenging human culture, right? Because the problem with human culture is that it's a mixed bag. We have to talk about that for just a second. In one way, culture is a blessing. It's even a God-given blessing because it gives us identity as a people. And so I could tell you that I'm part Norwegian. And when I was a kid, my parents thought it was important for me to be in a nation, a children's Norwegian, or actually it was for adults too, it was a Norwegian folk dance group. And we would sometimes go to the county fair and perform Norwegian folk dances in Norwegian costumes. And that sounds incredibly weird to me, but it was fun. And it was our culture. And we learned the language and we learned some of the stories of our culture and it gave us an identity. And that's right at the great side of human culture.

[21:36] It kind of tells you who you are in some ways. Now, God tells us who we are in other ways, but it can tell you who you are. But the problem with human cultures is also a deficit for us because humans are in charge of human culture and humans sin all the time. And so there's power and there's privilege and there's wealth and there's relationships between genders and relationships with other cultures. All of those things are marked by sin.

[22:01] And cultures actually seek the survival of their own culture, right? They wouldn't exist now if that wasn't true. It's just logical, right? Right. And so cultures seek to conserve things. A good or enlightened way to conserve a culture is to keep art and traditions and stories and recipes and things like that. That's all good. But the fallen side of conserving is to hoard wealth or resources or to turn a blind eye to the needs of outsiders or even to compete violently with other cultures or other people groups for the most resources they can have even if they don't need them all because they might someday. And our culture is better than their culture. So we have to have everything that we can lay our eyes on. And do you understand now that that last sentence is really the history of humanity right there? Every war that's ever been fought is along the lines of this rubric here. This is the history of the world summed up in one sentence. And Jesus redefines friendship away from being friends with people who will pay you back to giving up your life for others instead of hoarding. And so we have to be very careful. It's to live in generosity. It's welcoming the widow and the orphan and the stranger in the land with hospitality.

[23:17] It's eating with sinners. That was very countercultural that Jesus did. Sharing what you have so that everybody has enough. Like in Acts. The first church community. And to create a new human family. So everyone belongs. Everyone has enough. And everyone matters. That's the new culture. That Jesus is saying. seeking to bring to us. Now, whether we adopt it or not is entirely up to us, it seems, and to the work of the Spirit. So Jesus stands above culture. He works within culture, but he redefines things in drastic ways, and he critiques or challenges the cultures that we're in and says, here's a better way. And he's not saying, you know, don't be in the Norwegian folk dance group. That's great. But he is saying, stop destroying each other, right? Stop trying to out-compete each other. That's not what this is for. We could make an exhaustive list of all the ways that Jesus challenges the culture of his time. I mean, there's a long list. He's always, he has these interactions with religious authorities, challenge after challenge after challenge to them. In fact, you could look, you could almost see a sort of maybe a one way to summarize the gospel of Mark, for example, is a series of encounters with holy

[24:43] people and him sort of putting his foot down about how they're acting, right? Now, here's the thing. I want you to think about this for just a second. I'm going to see if anybody put anything else in the chat log. Krista says something else, right? Jesus. Brian says, his Jesus friends do what he commands. Maybe true friendship is paying enough attention to others so we satisfy their needs. That's right, Brian. Good. Thank you. See, we're edifying each other with these, and I really like that. We can make just as long a list of all the ways that Jesus challenges our culture today. Just as long a list. Jesus isn't done challenging culture. He's not done. He's going to keep at it. He's looking at us. And he's not only saying this is what true friendship is, is that what your friendships look like? He's asking us. But he wants to ask us about every other aspect of our lives. Today, I have an Amazon package coming. Okay? That's by itself nothing wrong with that. But if you buy too many Amazon packages, and I'm worried that I might be, something's wrong, right? I'm creating a lot of packaging for the world. There's a lot of waste going to the landfill. I'm not paying attention to the needs of the world. I'm just

[26:10] buying stuff for myself. You get the idea, right? Is the amount of consumerism that I'm engaged in, is it in line with what Jesus wants me to do with my life? Or would he challenge it? And I kind of even forget what's coming today. I know something's coming today, but I forget what it is, which is a sign that maybe I've lost lock on all of this, right? I'm trying to share a little bit about myself. Do I need all the junk? Do I need all the junk? Do I need all the junk? Do I need all the junk that gets sent to me? Do I have a place to store it all? Do I even use it? That's a great question. And I'm beginning to see that one of the marks of a mature disciple is to be curious about the culture I am in and how I operate in it. A mature disciple is curious and says, how are you operating in the culture that you are in? And which culture is that? Is that a culture that Jesus would challenge? Or is it a culture that Jesus would challenge? Or is it a culture that Jesus would endorse, right? Would he challenge my privilege? Would he challenge my wealth and how I spend it? Would he challenge if I don't speak up when I see injustice? There's all sorts of things going on in me that I think Jesus would challenge. Now, I'm going to ask you to be a

[27:22] little transparent because I think it would help somebody else. And in the chat log, again, is there any area of your own personal culture or your own personal habits that you have been feeling lately that Jesus is challenging? And I'm going to ask that again. Is there any area of your life, your culture, your habits that you've been thinking lately Jesus might challenge? And just one or two words in the chat log, and it could be too many Amazon boxes like me, or it could be something else, right? What is Jesus challenging about you and the normal way of life that you do things? And where is Jesus saying, you could do this differently? Where is he going to redefine some things like friendship, or redefine joy, or redefine wealth, or redefine blessing? Okay, so put those in the chat log. It could be a word or a phrase, like I said, like fewer Amazon deliveries, or I don't know. I can't. That's my, I'm going to put that in there. That's my chat.

[28:26] And I need to work on that because it really is too much. You know, I also gave up on DoorDash just yesterday. My family doesn't know this, but I'm going to put that in there. And I'm going to put that in there. And I'm going to put that in there. I just realized it's the end. It's very nice when they deliver food, but it's just not worth it for all sorts of reasons. So here I go. Fewer Amazon deliveries. I put that in the chat log. All right. Okay.

[28:58] Now, some of those may come in, but I want to talk a little bit more about how Jesus redefines friendship, and then we'll be done. Here's another redefinition of friendship. Not just that you would lay down your life for your brother, just as Jesus is about to do.

[29:15] But he says this, I no longer call you servants, but I call you friends. I don't call you servants anymore. I call you friends. Isn't that amazing that Jesus says this to his disciples? I call you my friends. I mean, in the relationship they were in, he was very clearly the rabble. He was the rabbi, the teacher. There's even a cultural thinking that maybe he would should hold himself aloof from his students so that they would be serious and so that all that he said would have some weight and importance and gravity for them. And he breaks that down in all sorts of interesting ways by washing their feet and by sentences like this. I don't call you my servants. I call you my friends.

[30:01] It would be like your teacher in high school who's very strict, you know, on the last day of school said by the way, you're some of my best friends. And the students would be like what? He's our teacher. You know, he or she is my teacher.

[30:15] But this is what Jesus does. Now I want to say something real quick about this word servant. And there's a text note. Sometimes translators have to make a choice. The Greek word there for servant is doulos. And that word can both mean servant or even slave and how we translate it depends on the context we 're in if there's a discussion of somebody being bought at a market, then that's probably a slave. But the meaning has a wide range. It could be anywhere from a slave, which is property that you own, which is terrible. We all agree that that's terrible, but it happened back then, to this range, whereas somebody who's like an indentured servant, they have to work off a certain debt, and then once their debt is paid, they're free, or even a servant that you hire who works in your household. Now, a servant, like he says, a servant does not know the master's business. The servant doesn't know what the master is up to. The servant is just told what to do and is expected to do it, regardless of what range that they are in. But Jesus says, I don't call you servants anymore. I call you friends, and this is important. I'm going to take a look at our chat log here. Good. All right. Natalie says, and thank you for all who shared,

[31:30] presence, speaking up. That's great. That's what Jesus is. From Steve, I need to set better boundaries around work. Praise God. Please, I hope you do that. That's really important. Yeah. Danielle said, being there for friends and family as we are too busy. Great. Pam wrote, I grew up in a family that was marked by the depression and post-war period. Thrift was a strong virtue, and I'm wondering if it has affected my understanding of generosity. That's really insightful. Thank you, Pam. Brian Smith, to me, failure to embrace the abundance of God's love for me is the most important thing. I'm not sure if that's the right word, Abundant life. I can keep it at arm's length. Great. Jesus is challenging a lot of us. This is great. Andres, keeping old tech equipment and other items that I think I would use later, but only takes up space. I'm with you. I was organizing my garage yesterday, and I was like, what is all this junk? I have so many USB cables. I could braid them into like a giant rope. You know, it's crazy. I don't need them. I don't know what I'm going to do with them all. Can I recycle them? Give them away? I don't know. So thank you all for who have put in the chat log there, and it's still open if you want to put anything in. Thank you for sharing. I mean that. I think

[32:37] that's great. I think that's helpful for everybody. So Jesus says, servants do as they're told without knowing why, without knowing what the master is planning, but we are friends. And so I want you to know the plan, or at least I want you to know the plan, and the plan is what my father has shared with me, and I'm going to share that plan with you. It's our plan. It's a plan for us. It's a plan for us. And it follows then that a friend who knows a plan needs to spend time and energy knowing what the plan is, and here is the plan. This is the plan that Jesus gives him. He says, it is this, is to continue to challenge human culture, which he does, to the point of losing his own life on the cross because he challenged so much. This is why he went to the cross. It wasn't because he had committed any crime at all. It was because he continued to challenge the religious authorities, and they couldn't take it anymore, and they had to do away with him. So his challenge to culture is what put him on the cross. His eating with sinners put him on the cross. His overthrowing of the tables in the temple courts put him on the cross. All these things where he was challenging established norms, established religious practices, established

[33:51] social structures, all that put him on the cross. But he was doing it out of obedience to the father. The father said, you have to keep challenging the culture you're in, and he did, and he did it all the way through. So that's our plan. Not only does Jesus need to challenge us and our culture, but we need to speak into our culture in a prophetic way and challenge our own culture. You could do it obnoxiously, and if you have to do it obnoxiously, and that's the only way to do it, then go ahead. But there's a loving way to do it too. There's a walking with another person way of doing it as well. And I leave that to you to decide which, you know, nobody's going to purposely be obnoxious, but this idea that there is. There's times to be loud and prophetic, and there's times to walk along other people, but we are to challenge our own culture. And we are to model this true friendship that Jesus talks about. And so if we love somebody, we're willing to lay down our lives for them. We're willing to sacrifice for them, and we're willing to do so not expecting anything at all in return. It's a sacrificial servant-like friendship. And we are also to tell other people about the plan. And the plan is this,

[35:01] that there's a cross, and there's a way to do it. And we're willing to sacrifice for them, and we're willing to do it. And we're willing to do it. And we're willing to do it. And we're willing to do it. And there's a cross, and there's redemption, and there's a coming kingdom where the impurities of human culture are burned away in the crucible of justice and righteousness. And the best of what makes us who we are, are all gathered together at the throne as a vast multitude of every tribe and every nation worshiping the Lamb of God. So all culture will be redeemed someday. What's redeemable from each culture will be redeemed and will be present in front of God. Praise God. What a blessing. That's the plan. So there's plenty of work to do. Listen to the challenge to us, challenge our world, and tell people about the plan. Okay, that's enough. This week, I only want you to focus on all of it. But this week in particular, I want you to focus on one thing. And that's this. Keep your ear open to the Spirit. And we've already seen a list here of people sending these in, and thank you for those. What is it you are doing in your everyday life, things that you maybe don't notice because they are so routine that you don't even notice? And I want you to focus on one thing. And that's this.

[36:02] Jesus would challenge and redefine what it really looks like. And it takes a little work, and I think it takes a little bit of quiet. It takes a quiet space, both in terms of time and in volume and even in location. Find a quiet place to stand outside yourself for a moment and to watch yourself, which sounds a little strange, but you can do it. And you look, rewind your week and say, why was I doing all the things that I was doing? Would Jesus challenge any of that? And if you did, would you challenge any of those choices I made this week? And if he would, what would he challenge? And what would I do differently? And ask the Spirit to help us see ourselves as God does, as Jesus does, so that we would know what to correct. So I want you to make some time for that. And I will also make, this is my commitment, I will also make some time for that. And I will report back on what I hear. And there's more than just Amazon packages at stake here. So that's our assignment for this week. I hope you do that. And in the sure hope that God wants to speak to you, that Jesus wants to challenge you, that the Spirit wants to lead you in some way so that you redefine for yourself not just what friendship is, but what it means to truly be a follower and disciple. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you

[37:21] again for your word. We ask that you would teach us this week where Jesus would challenge us. And we ask it in his name. Amen.