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That's connectwithskip.com. Now, let's get started with today's message from Pastor Skip Heitzig. He wrote a poem to his mom to encourage his mom. It wasn't a song, but it became a song. It was simply a poem.
You know it. What a friend we have in Jesus. All our sins and griefs to bear.
What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer. Now, you've sung that, as have I, but knowing the story behind it will help, I think, and whenever you sing it again, to understand the real depth of meaning behind it. You see, Joseph Scriven was himself born in Ireland and fell in love. When he was 25 years old, he met a young lady and was engaged to her. And as the relationship developed and they were planning their wedding, they were so excited. But the day before the wedding, a tragedy happened and that girl died in a drowning accident.
One day before the wedding. He was broken hearted. And Joseph Scriven got on a boat, left Ireland, went to Canada to heal from that experience and eventually met another young lady by the name of Eliza Roche. He fell in love with Eliza. They got engaged. And seemingly as Providence would have it, she came down with the illness and she died also before the wedding. His heart was devastated. He never did marry his entire life.
He stayed single. He devoted his life to preaching the gospel and to showing compassion to those whose hearts were broken and who needed a friend. At the very same time or around the same time that his fiancé, number two, Eliza Roche died, word came to him that his mother in Ireland was sick and on her deathbed. He couldn't afford to get on a boat and go back to Ireland. So he wrote the poem, the song.
And that second verse is so poignant, especially coming from his own lips. Have we trials and temptation? Is there trouble anywhere? We should never be discouraged. Take it to the Lord in prayer.
Can we find a friend so faithful? Who will all our sorrows share? Jesus knows our every weakness. Take it to the Lord in prayer.
You know, it's one thing if somebody who never suffered wrote that song, but coming from his own life makes those words even more powerful. What a friend we have in Jesus. What is a friend? If you were to look up the word in a Webster's dictionary, as I did this week, you would discover that the definitions in the dictionary are very inadequate. Definition number one, a friend is someone attached to someone else by esteem or affection. OK, definition number two, someone who is not hostile. In other words, the opposite of a friend is an enemy.
I think we can do a lot better than that. I've always loved the definition that came in a British newspaper years ago. This newspaper gave a cash prize for anyone who could write in with the best definition of a friend. Thousands of entries were submitted, typical ones like a friend is one who multiplies joy and divides grief. Or a friend is someone who understands our silence. Or a friend is a volume of sympathy wrapped in a cloth. Or a friend is a watch that ever beats and never runs out.
But the definition that won the prize for this English publication was this. A friend is someone who comes in when the rest of the world goes out. What a friend we have in Jesus. Proverbs 17 says that a friend loves at all times and a brother is born for adversity. Well, you really know who your friends are when you're in adversity, right?
They either come, they show up, they rise to the surface, or we're so and so. I thought they were my friend. Would you agree with this statement that we have many acquaintances but few friends?
I think that's true. You might know a lot of people as acquaintances, but to be given the designation of a friend, you've got to be a special person because you're not going to just pour out your heart with anybody, right? It has to be a special person. Very few friends. What do you want in a friend? What's a good friend like? A survey was given to 40,000 Americans. They discovered the qualities most Americans want in friends.
Listen to this line up. Number one, the ability to keep a confidence. In other words, not a gossip, somebody who will zip the lip when needed. Number two, someone who's loyal. And number three, someone who's warm and affectionate.
That's interesting. That's not number one. That was number three. Ability to keep a confidence, loyalty, and then warmth and affection. This morning in John chapter 15, we look at a very special friendship. It's the friendship that Jesus has with his own. Now, keep in mind the context. There's 11 disciples Jesus is walking with.
Remember the story? Chapter 14, Jesus said, Arise, let us go from here. They're in the upper room. They've had the last supper. He gets up from the supper.
They walk out of the room. They're walking toward the Garden of Gethsemane. And somewhere along the road, Jesus speaks to them, chapter 15 and 16, and will pray in chapter 17 in the Garden of Gethsemane. One of his friends, so-called, Judas Iscariot, is no longer with him.
At this very moment, he's perpetrating the betrayal of Jesus Christ. So these remaining 11, these are the good branches, as opposed to the dead branch that bore no fruit, really, and that's Judas. These are the abiding branches.
These are the fruitful branches. And to them, Jesus gives a special designation. Let's read it in its context, beginning in verse 12 of chapter 15. This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends. You are my friends, if you do whatever I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for a friend does not know what his master is doing. But I have called you friends, for all things I heard from my Father, I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and I appointed you, that you should go and bear fruit, that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in my name, He may give you. These things I command you, that you love one another. So in looking at these verses, let's consider the kind of friendship that Jesus has with us and we can have with Him. And those are the basic two things we want to look at. We want to look at how good of a friend Jesus is to us, and then finally, what kind of a friend are we to Him? So there's a few things I want you to note based on this text. Number one, Jesus picks His friends.
That seems legitimate, right? He has that prerogative. We would imagine He would be able to choose whoever He wants as His friends. Look at verse 16 more carefully. You did not choose me, but I chose you.
Stop right there. Now this is different than human friendship, because in human friendship there is a commonality and a mutuality about our friendships. We choose each other. Actually, if you ever encounter someone, there's three possibilities, three things that could happen, and only one would result in friendship. Option number one, you meet a person. You're hanging around, you talk to the person. You don't like that person, and that person doesn't care much for you. Are you going to be friends with that person?
No, you might be polite and thank you very much and dismiss it, but you'll never be friends. Option number two, you meet someone. You like them. They don't like you. You're probably not going to be friends. Option number three, you meet someone. You're fond of them. They're fond of you.
You both invest in that, and friendship will develop over time and be nurtured. What's interesting here is that it seems to be, at least at first, unilateral. Jesus said, you didn't choose me. I chose you. Now, that to me is so significant that I want just a few minutes to unpack the meaning of that for us. For Jesus to say, you didn't choose me, but I chose you reveals some things.
First of all, it speaks to us about his position, his position, that Jesus is so important and so high in rank that he can have this prerogative of choice. I'll give you an example. If you ever met a very famous person, a great person, a very wealthy person, you know that people like that tend to be very careful about who they allow into their circle of friends, right? They just don't allow anyone because there's a lot of people with ulterior motives that would want to take advantage of that relationship, so they're very slow to allow friends around them. In fact, I would even say that people who are that great have the prerogative.
You'll only be their friends if they invite you in to their circle. You're listening to Connect with Skip Heitzig. Before we return to Skip's teaching, God's peace, his shalom, can penetrate every aspect of your life, spiritually, mentally, physically, and emotionally. In his book, Unleashing Peace, Experiencing God's Shalom in Your Pursuit of Happiness, author Jeremiah J. Johnston helps you understand shalom and guides you into the peace that passes all understanding and when you give a gift of $50 or more today, we'll send you Unleashing Peace. Our thanks for your support to reach more people with God's love through Connect with Skip Heitzig.
Go to connectwithskip.com slash offer or call 800-922-1888 and request your copy when you give. Now, let's get back to Skip for more of today's teaching. I was watching a show sometime back. I think it was called Cribs or Famous People's Cribs. You know, it's about their home, where they live. It showed the home of Mariah Carey. It was Mariah's crib, her home. It was a beautiful home, and she went through every room, every level of every room, every building of that house. It was a massive mansion, and this is what we do here, and my friends do this here. Then she showed one lower room. It was beautiful, but it was a lower room. She goes, this is reserved for people who aren't as close as friends.
They get to be in this room, but no other room. So she was obviously in control of the relationships that she allows in that house, in her life. Here is Jesus, who allows us to be friends, makes a choice by virtue of His position. It says in 1 John 4, we love Him because He first loved us.
That's why we're friends. He first loved us. He, by His position, invited us closer. It tells us something else.
Number two, it tells us not just about His position, but His election, His election. He chose us. Verse 16, you did not choose me, I chose you. Now, go over to verse 19.
Look at that one. If you were of this world, the world would love its own. Yet, because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Now we're speaking about election, predestination, and I personally have no problem with the doctrine of election or predestination, that God in advance chooses those to be saved. Now, a lot of people struggle with that. To me, it's not a struggle. Ephesians 1 tells us that you are chosen, we are chosen, predestined in Christ before the foundation of the world.
It's His election of us. So, God chose people to be saved. Now, you might in hearing that say, I believe that, Skip, but I have a problem whenever you call people forward in an ultra call. I've had people tell me that.
They don't like ultra calls. So why do you ask people to come forward and choose Christ? Here's why.
Because both are true. He chooses us and we cooperate with His choice by choosing Him. He involves Himself in our human volition.
You know what it's like? It's like a rope. There's a drowning man in a body of water in a lake.
He's drowning. A rope gets thrown at him. Will the rope save him? No, the rope by itself won't save him. He has to do what? Grab a hold of the rope. But even that's not enough. If there's the presence of a rope and the man grabs a hold of the rope, will that save him?
No. There has to be somebody on the shore pulling him, pulling that rope to safety. So, put those together. God by predestination throws the rope by election draws the rope. We, by our own volition, grab a hold of the rope.
Both are true. He has chosen us. This is divine election. Now, it could be that in hearing that, maybe this is the first time you've ever heard something like that, you might even be an unbeliever and you hear that God chooses people to be saved and you're thinking, boy, that's not fair because what if He didn't choose me to be saved? Well, I can prove to you that He did.
At the end of this service, you come and give your life to Christ and I'll show you that you were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the earth. Well, I don't know if I want to do that. I'm not willing. I'm not ready. Okay, well, maybe you weren't chosen.
Well, that's not fair. Well, then come and choose Christ. You'll discover that the choice has been made. It's like the old analogy of the man seeing a sign on the door that says, whosoever will, let him come. He opens the door.
The door closes behind him. The sign on the back of the door says, chosen in Christ before the foundations of the earth. So this tells us of His position. It tells us of His election. There's something else this Jesus picking of His friends shows us. It shows us His affection, His love. I want you to think about this. God knew all about you before He chose you and He still chose you.
Did you get that? He knew all about your weaknesses. He knew all about your mistakes. He knew all about your habits. He knows all the dumb things we do and think, and He chose you anyway. Chosen in Christ before the foundations of the world. That's affection.
That's love. Charles Spurgeon used to say, it's a good thing that God picked me before I was born. He never would have picked me after I was born. Of course, he didn't really believe that. That was his way of saying, the love of God is so amazing that knowing all that I am and all of my mistakes, He would pick me anyway.
Let me ask you a question. When Jesus picked His 12 disciples, did He understand what they were going to do to Him? You think He understood all that was going to happen? You bet He did. Did He know that Peter was going to deny Him? And did Jesus know that Thomas was going to doubt Him? Yep. And did He know that James and John would say, Lord, let me just kill these Samaritans, call down fire from heaven and smoke them? Did He knew that violence was in them?
Yep. He picked Him anyway. It speaks of His affection. One of my favorite stories is a story of a huge block of marble that was cut out of a quarry in Carrara, Italy, where all of the ancient statues, the marble for the statues, was hewn and typically brought to the great artists for them to make something. And this stone was cut out. It was a massive block of marble, and it was taken to Florence, Italy, where the masters lived. And artist after artist viewed that block of marble that sat in a churchyard week after week, and all of them rejected that block of marble. For example, Donatello, the great sculptor, looked at it and said, I don't want it, because there was a crack in it. There was a flaw that ran through the marble. And one after another rejected the flawed marble until one artist came by, and he smiled, and he got really excited, and he said, there's an angel trapped inside, and I must set it free. That man was Michelangelo.
For two years, he worked on that flawed block of marble and brought forth, after two years, on January 25th, 1504, what is called his greatest work ever, the statue of David, which still adorns the courtyards of Florence, Italy. That's affection. That's how God looks at us.
God looks at your life, sees the flaw, says, yeah, I know, but there's something trapped in there. I'm going to release it. I'm going to work on that person.
I'm going to make them useful. So here's Jesus picking his friends. You didn't choose me.
I chose you. It speaks of his position. It speaks of his election. It speaks of his affection. Finally, the fourth thing it does, it speaks to us of his intention, his intention. Now, listen carefully. God has an intention, a purpose for your life now, a job for you to do.
I want you to look at the second important word in that sentence, verse 16. You did not choose me, but I chose you. And what? Appointed. Appointed. It's a very, very important word.
It's the Greek word, tythemi. It means to select, appoint, ordain for a very special purpose. So the first part, I've chosen you, chosen you out of the world. That's salvation. The second word, ordain, that's service.
First, salvation, and then comes service. I chose you. I ordained you. But keep going.
Look what it says. You didn't choose me. I chose you and appointed you that you should... What's the next word?
I want to hear it from everybody. Go. Stop there. This is so... I love this.
It's so good. I've chosen you and I've especially ordained you that you should go. Listen, God never selects any Christian to stop. I picked you to stop right there. Go no further.
There's motion implied here. He didn't want us to just sit around, look at each other, sing a few songs, just watch life go on. He said, go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. So here's the pattern.
And this is so important, I just don't want anybody to miss it. This is what he does. Jesus picks friends, calls them out of the world, saves them, and then sends them right back in the world.
Because now they have the word withal to do something about the world they were chosen out of. I've chosen you. I've ordained you that you should go and bear forth or bring forth fruit and that your fruit should remain. What does he mean here by fruit?
You say, Skip, you've been through this already, move on. You talked about fruit last week. I did, I talked about fruit, especially as the fruit of the Spirit, right? Galatians 5, the characteristic of Christ.
Here, the context is a little different. Because he's speaking of being chosen and going out into the world, I think that the fruit he is especially, in particular referring to, aren't the graces of Christian character, but the converts from the unbelieving world. It's people that you influence and they come to Christ.
There's a spiritual harvest the fruit is gathered in. We're glad you joined us today. Before you go, remember that when you give $50 or more to help reach more people with the gospel through Connect with Skip Heitzig, we'll send you Jeremiah Johnston's powerful book, Unleashing Peace, to guide you into the peace that passes all understanding. To request your copy, call 800-922-1888.
That's 800-922-1888. Or visit connectwithskip.com slash donate. For more from Skip, be sure to download the Connect with Skip Heitzig app, where you can access messages and more content right at your fingertips. We'll see you next time for more verse-by-verse teaching of God's word here on Connect with Skip Heitzig Weekend Edition. Make a connection Make a connection At the foot of the cross Cast all burdens on His word Make a connection Connection Connect with Skip Heitzig is a presentation of Connection Communications, connecting you to God's never-changing truth in ever-changing times.
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