All year I have been dealing with the subject of Love. I went to God and asked why still. And he told me, stop and take a moment and look and think about love and what it entails. We have heard folk profess love in love songs and writings and in attempts to get someone to understand the depth of their profession of love, “I’d die for you”. Some of us may have even said it to our spouse or loved ones, you know baby “I love you, and I would die for you”
But would we really? Well I want to challenge you to look at the scripture where Jesus is talking to his folk. I challenge you to understand the level of his friendship to us. I challenge you to absorb the level of his love. Then I compel you to comprehend what he expects of us.
Jesus died so that we might live. Jesus came so that we might have a chance to go. Jesus sacrificed so that we might have salvation – Wonder friendship. Jesus loved us enough to be convicted for our crimes. Jesus loved us enough to go to the garden and await his captors so that we the captives could be set free. Jesus loved us enough to hang on the cross so that he could be lifted up from the earth and draw all men unto him.
Jesus expects us to die for him if we are his friend. No greater love can be shown. But he is not speaking of a physical death. He is telling us to let our sinful lives go. Release our wordly ways – let flesh die so that we can become closer to him. Turn to someone and tell them What a Friend I have In Jesus, How about You?
When we think of a friend, we think of someone who we can count on. Someone we can call in the midnight hour. Someone who we trust with our secrets. Someone we know will be there for us through thick and thin. Someone who would be willing to feed you when you are hungry. Someone who can tell you when you are wrong but still love you. When we think of a friend we think of someone who has our back. Somebody who won’t let someone destroy you. Someone who will stand in the gap for you. Anyone who says they are a friend but will not help you when you need help or support you when you need support or comfort you when you need comfort I got to tell you is not really a friend. Now I have a friend who will do all of these things and then some! Look what he told his boys. “I love you so much I will lay my life down for you!” What a friend we have in Jesus. Someone who left his heavenly mansion to be born in a lowly manger. Someone who left a place of peace to be in a place of chaos and confusion. A man who left a life of being exalted to come to a place where he would be rejected. A wonderful friend!
Now someone may be sitting here and asking themselves, well how do you get a friend like Jesus, and I would have to simply respond, get to know Him.
I don’t mean like a guy you may have bumped into on the street. A mere acquaintance. Someone in the office you have Lunch. Or someone you say hello to at the church on Sunday morning. I talking about a relationship that is closer then a brother. I am talking about understanding the benefits of His love and the mercy of the cross and the importance of having a fellowship with Him that will lead us to the Cross”.
We have begun the season of celebrating the importance of the Cross. A place where the love of Jesus was exemplified. The Cross-is a place of death, but also a place that Life can start anew.
This is because His love was so great for you and I that He laid His life down for all Humanity. What A friend we have in Jesus!
No man can give a greater gift then to lay down his life John 15:13 state “Greater love has no
Jesus was speaking of the present time. For his whole life lived was only to one end, His Death on the Cross on Golgotha’s. Who else would do that??? Heck there are times we are to unary to speak to the person sitting next to us, no less die for them. But if you actually took time out to get to know Jesus, we would spend more time trying to be like Him. Have you ever wondered why there seems to be a stifle on the growth of the church? Well are we letting people know we are a friend of Jesus? Are our actions showing them that we are more than a mere acquantence of His word. Are our ways an indication that we understand the benefits of the cross and we cling to them. Do our words show someone that we love Jesus because he is a friend who will go with us to the end. If someone new visited our church this weekend, you know the one that had been turned out of every other church because of the way they looked, or smelled; and sat down right beside one of us, would we welcome that person or would we lean over and ask Sis. Burn Ann, “Who is that or what are they doing here?
How you might feel if he or she were a prostitute of gang banger. Or if they were an unwed teenage mother or used drugs or sold drugs. What if they were an alcoholic or gay.
Would we be able to show them love? If Jesus is your friend, and he is really someone you know and not just know about. Then we would know that we don’t turn away those who are not on the same page we are. They are people Jesus loves. And since the word tells us God desires everyone to be saved, it would stand to reason that the church should embrace those who stand outside the will of God and introduce them to the one that can connect them back to God. Tell someone What a friend we have in Jesus. All our sins – stank – and stuff. All our tears, turmoil and grief to bear. Just develop a relationship with Him.
We must tell the one who is depressed that Jesus gives hope to the hopeless because as far as God is concerned everyone has a chance. We got to tell someone that Jesus is a friend and His grace is strong enough to reach and transform anyone, no matter what they had done. We must tell someone about this friend named Jesus who was sent to earth because our Daddy wanted to be reunited with his children who he created in His image. We must tell folk we have a friend in Jesus and that every person is worthy of respect and that all encompassing emotion love. Tell the homosexual, Jesus is your friend and he can restore you, no matter how destructive your lifestyle may be. That person who is suffering – we can offer hope through our friendship with Jesus, because we have found a friend in Jesus, He is everything We need!
Spend time with Him! Get to Know who he is. So we can tell that crackhead, take it to the Lord in prayer. Get to know him, spend time with Him so we can tell that mother who lost her child about the joy that only Jesus can give. Get to know him, spend time with Him so you can share His story and His love with that Father trying to make his marriage work. .
Don’t label people. Don’t discount anyone. Because if God placed us in a category, all of us would fall under unsavable..
The word says nothing will separate us from the love of God, letting us understand that even those who are unsaved are still loved by God. We who have a friendship with Jesus must understand that the unsaved are people of God just as we are, except they aren’t currently acting in ways that please Him.
Do not condone sinful living, but offer them a way out by recommending Jesus.
Don’t just simply preach against the sin, but also offer them the one who can save them from their sin. .
Tell them about God’s unconditional love,
Encourage them to strive to live holy and strive to live right because they have a friend.
Let them know that there sins are forgiven, they don’t owe anything because Jesus paid it all.
Jesus Christ came to this earth, was born of a woman and died on the cross for one reason, so that everyone could say I am my Fathers Child. No longer alienated. No longer an orphan. Tell someone because of the cross – our best friend has shown us the ultimate sacrifice of Love, TO GIVE YOUR LIFE.
Now to give our life is a little less drastic. He simply wants us to give our life to Christ. To lay down our life for a friend, is a little easier to do than Jesus did because he simply wants us to lay down our worldly life for him.
