Wonderful. Well we've been looking at the theme of kings over this last couple of weeks and I know you're going to enjoy what I share with you this morning. So I want you to open your Bible with me in John, Chapter 15 and we'll read Verse 14 and 15. I want to call this message today servants or kings, which are you -a servant or slave, or are you a king? Which are you? Of course the way you think and the way you approach life will reveal it very clearly and I want to give you some biblical perspective. Notice here it says in Verse 14 and 15, this is Jesus' last session with His disciples and so the Bible recounts a lot of it. There's about four chapters; John, Chapter 13, 14, 15, 16 right through to 17 is all Jesus' words to His disciples. That's a lot of words written down and so the things that are shared there are really important.
You notice what He says here; You're my friends if you do whatever I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for a servant doesn't know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends for all the things that I heard from my Father I have made known to you. So Jesus at this point is raising the status of His followers. He says I'm no longer calling you servants. That meant prior to that time He had addressed them or treated them or called them servants. A servant is someone who listens to commands and does what they're commanded to do, but Jesus wants to elevate their status. He wants to shift them to a different realm of living. It's not a servant or slave, it's the realm of friend, a friend of God.
God does not want you to live in the realm of a servant or slave. He wants you to live in the realm of friend - very important for your destiny and for your future that you migrate in your thinking from servant to friend. Notice what He says here; servants know how to obey - so a servant listens. What a servant is trained to do are these things: number one, to listen for instructions; number two, follow the instructions. That's what a servant does. Their own desires or dreams are not involved. They wait for instructions and follow instructions, so a person who's a servant really has no dreams or desires of their own. They're not given expression to them. They just live to fulfil the will of another. That's the role of a servant.
Jesus is wanting to lift them up. A friend has a personal relationship. A friend connects and communicates heart to heart. When you go through the Bible and you begin to look at the friends of God, you find there's something quite interesting. Yes, they were God's representatives. You find that they fulfil what God wanted them to do, but they engage with God and often disagreed and debated or tried to persuade Him to change His mind. You have a look at Moses and God said to Moses, well I'm going to get out of the way. I'm going to kill all these people and Moses stands up and begins to negotiate with God and God changes the plan. Now that's a true friend.
They're able to come into relationship with God in such a way that God engages them and listens to them. It's not the role of a servant. A servant just does what they're told. Moses clearly had gone beyond the realm of a servant when he's negotiating with God about how He's going to treat Israel for their mistakes. Abraham was similar. He was called a friend of God but you notice when God said that He was going to destroy the city he begins a process of bargaining and he's a real Jew really because he beats Him down from you know, well if I find 50 in there, well what if you only found 10? Then he gets it right down to if I found one, so he does actually a bargaining with God. Can you believe that? ... [Laughter]
Keywords: negotiate, friend, relationship, Moses, Abraham, king, slave, religious mindset, children, inheritance, enlargement, christian divination, victim thinking, initiative