401: James Walker – Exhortation: Friendship

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Welcome to Good Christophian
Talks.

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Thank you for joining us this
week on this podcast.

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We select one talk a week to
help us get the Bible in our

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Daily News feed.
Each week we post a talk that we

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previewed from suggestions sent
in by listeners from around the

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world.
Then we record a short intro

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beforehand as a personalized
recommendation to you on why we

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are sharing the talk.
And now let’s talk more about

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this week’s talk.
This week’s talk is an

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exhortation by Brother James
Walker given at the Simi Hills

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Ecclesia on May 3rd of this
year.

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I have attended Simi Hills for
most of my life, so this I did

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hear this in the audience.
This is my first time posting

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exhortation from Simi Hills.
Obviously massive bias here.

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I’ve known Uncle James my whole
life.

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He interviewed me for baptism
and I so enjoyed this talk.

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And to be frank, it’s because
usually Uncle James talks for a

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very long time in a very
unfocused way.

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I think he would say that.
I would say that to his face.

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That’s something he knows about
himself.

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And this excitation was not
that.

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It was a, a, a, a, a really
wonderful excitation talking

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about the difference between
kind of human friendship, godly

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friendship or Jesus’s friendship
to us.

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And that was something that I
really enjoyed thinking about

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and was really refreshed by
listening to.

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And I hope it’s the same for
you.

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So I guess, yeah, usually I, I
pull a talk down from the

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recommendations list, but this
one was kind of kind of one for

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me.
So I hope, I hope you enjoy it.

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I hope it’s beneficial for you
as well.

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So here is James Walker on
friendship.

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Oh, good morning everyone.
Good to see everyone here today.

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And I want to talk to you today
about what Jesus said.

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It’s printed on the board when
he says you are my friends, you

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are my friends and I would have
this chapter serve as a backdrop

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to what we’re going to talk
about today.

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It contains the elements of
everything that I have put

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together tryingly and I just
hope it it it it’ll come out in

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such a way that it helps us to
think about our our friendships

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and friends.
And probably more importantly is

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when Jesus looks at his own that
he’s called his friends that be

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you and that be I.
We are his friends and in that

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friendship we are in friendship
with each other.

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He adds to that when he says, I
am your friend if you do what I

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command you.
And I often looked at that and I

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go, Oh my goodness, that’s a
that’s a heavy load to carry if

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I do what he’s commanded me.
But I’m not too sure that we

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want to venture too far out of
this chapter to determine what

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that is, because what he’s
commanded us is to love one

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another.
What he’s asked of us is to be

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part of the vine, to be the
branches of the vine that he is,

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and to bear much fruit.
That’s our goal of being friends

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of Jesus, to be a branch grafted
into the vine, bearing much

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fruit, fruits of the Spirit.
That’s what he’s commanded us to

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do, to love one another, that in
that love with one another, we

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bear much fruit.
That’s the backdrop to what

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we’ll talk to about to today and
the reason why I want to talk

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about it because sometimes I
feel very friendless.

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I don’t feel as though I’m
friendly.

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And you would think out of all
of the places that you can

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befriend somebody, it would be
in the ecclesia of God.

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I don’t think I’m alone in this.
There are those that I befriend,

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I have a closeness to that I
speak to every Sunday.

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There are those that are a
distant in this meeting that I

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speak to, not at all.
I don’t know if you have that

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same experience, but I think you
do.

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There are those that you say hi
to every Sunday and there and

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there’s those that say hi to you
every Sunday.

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And then there are those in the
medium and then those on the

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outside, often the fringes of
our company.

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Friends, Jesus says Jesus has
come to each one of us.

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He says, you’re my friend.
Hello.

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Every Sunday he does that,
doesn’t he?

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Every Sunday when we come here,
we befriend him.

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We come here and we partake of
bread and wine to remember him

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because he’s befriend us and we
enjoy that experience and we

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come to befriend him.
Sometimes we struggle in

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friendships.
We we know the difference.

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We experienced that with just
said it this morning.

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Went to the Philippines to see
to to encamp with friends.

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And we all do that.
We as human beings are

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fundamentally social creatures
who generally desire friends and

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companionship to combat
loneliness, boost happiness, and

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improve physical and mental
health.

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So when Jesus says you are my
friends, we come here and we, we

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may come not feeling friendly or
like we have friends, we may be

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not feeling that connection.
But yet when we leave, by the

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time we leave, we, we, we feel
more happy about our experience

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here with one another, with what
we have done together and

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remembering he who befriended
us.

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So when we think of Jesus
befriending us, what do we look

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for when we think of a friend?
What is it that we see in others

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that we are friendly too?
Well, certainly there’s a lot of

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things, right?
There’s that, that

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compatibility.
You know, if you were in a

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motorcycle club, you’d all have
a motorcycle and we could hang

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out together and be friends and
talk about our motorcycle,

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right?
Or whatever the club may be or

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whatever the group might be.
We have similar interests.

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We have similar passions.
We might even find and say that

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a friend is somebody that we can
trust, we can have confidence

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in, we can confide in, we can
tell them perhaps our closest

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secrets.
So, so to speak, things we

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wouldn’t just tell anybody.
We could tell our friend, right?

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Somebody that has your back,
somebody that can be there for

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you and stick up for you and,
and, and fight your battles with

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you, your challenges and help
you get through whatever those

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challenges might be.
Those are friends.

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In the Proverbs, it talks about
a friend.

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A friend’s chastisement is
respectful.

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Sometimes a friend needs to do
that for a friend to let us know

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that perhaps we may be a little
out of line here or there.

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And certainly there’s that
social connection that, you

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know, there’s just people you
have easy time communicating

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with back and forth.
And there’s that social

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connection.
But I think All in all, we all

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know what a friend is.
And so the bottom line is, is to

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have a friend.
Friends are important.

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So if you’re coming in the door
and you feel friendless, this,

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this that it represents Jesus
says, you are my friend.

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And he’s telling each one of us
that.

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And later on he, what does he
say?

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He says something.
He says Jesus says you’ve not

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chosen me, I’ve chosen you.
That’s an interesting statement

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to find someone that you choose
to befriend and you want them to

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be friends with you too.
And sometimes you can say I want

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this person to be my friend, but
they don’t want to befriend me.

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It’s like the old sandbox days,
right when you were little kids,

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you know, when the guys, when
the little kid says I don’t want

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to be your friend, you know that
hurt.

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What do you mean you don’t want
to be my friend?

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I, I try my whole life to be
friendly and be and, and I know

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I’m not I’m not sometimes I’m
the most unfriendliest person

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there is why I can find more
reasons to not be your friend

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than for reasons to be your
friend.

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Why do I do that?
The prejudices, the judgments

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outweigh love.
Let me say that again.

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Our prejudices, our judgement,
our sizing people up.

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We used to say you’re not my
friend, you can’t be friends

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with me.
I have a higher standard for you

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to be friends with me.
So our prejudices, our judgments

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outweigh love.
Jesus chose us.

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Jesus loved us while we were in
our sins.

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He had every reason to build
that list of why we cannot be

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friends with Him.
Jesus did not sin.

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Jesus was just and holy, but
Jesus was like his Father God in

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heaven above God is love, full
of compassion, full of mercy.

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He looks at you and I and he
says you know because you

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believe in my son, I cleanse you
and absolve you of your sin and

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he makes us right before him
despite our awkwardness.

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What we see in each other that
sometimes say that I just wish

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they were a little more.
Jesus is asking us to love him.

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He’s asking us if we love Him,
to love whom He has chosen, the

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brothers and sisters that make
up who He is.

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Remember the Vine and that we
are the branches grafted into

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the vine.
We become one with Him.

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Jesus is asking us to abide in
Him, not independently.

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We’re not here today
independently.

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Yes, it is.
We have to size things up in

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ourselves to make right, right.
We, we, we want to, you know,

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beef set afresh and new and go
on our way.

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But brothers and sisters, this
is the, the, you know, what I

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see in my head as of late is
that when Jesus is speaking the

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gospel message to us, yes, it’s
individually, but we have to

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remember that we’re not alone.
We are not an island.

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We are connected together.
We are part of the vine.

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We abide in Him, and He abides
in us, not me, us.

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The letters to the seven
churches were written to the

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churches, and most of the
letters were written to

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churches, to people not
individually, but collectively.

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Together, as an ecclesia we will
live and die, I think, by our

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disposition in the ecclesia of
God.

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I think more that way today that
I have to give up my own

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passions, my own likenesses, and
concentrate and focus more on

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the health, the spiritual health
and direction of the ecclesia of

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God, which I am responsible to,
which is this ecclesia most

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importantly and foremost, my
relationship with you and you

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with me, each one of us
responsible for one another.

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That’s what Jesus is asking.
He laid down his life for us and

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He’s asking us because friends
lay down their lives for one

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another.
I wrote a 20 minute exhortation

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that I know that if I gave it,
it’d be 35.

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I’m off my notes.
This, I hope you can see, is

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from my heart and it’s what I am
passionate about, the spiritual

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health of this ecclesia, the
relationship each of us have for

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one another.
I guess if I was to say anything

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from my notes, I would say that
Jesus is broadening our concept

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of what a friend is.
Typically, we look at it very

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selfishly, how I feel about a
certain individual.

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I think he’s asking us to
broaden our scope, to be more

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inclusive with one another and
to bring each to think that

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we’re all together in this
together, right?

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We’re moving forward through,
you know, the children of Israel

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move forward together through
the wilderness.

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It was almost like they were
blessed and punished

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collectively.
We together are highly blessed

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with a large ecclesia, with a
healthy Sunday school, a healthy

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meeting, and together we want to
continue and, and, and do that.

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I had a lot of important things
to say, but I think I said it.

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So now we remember he who
befriended us and now all we

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have to do is befriend him by
befriending one another and

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helping each other.
That we together will be ready,

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waiting, watching for Jesus when
he comes, so that when he knocks

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on our door, we’re ready to go
together with him, wherever it

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is that He takes us, and we’ll
enter into the joy of the Lord

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together.
Thank you for listening to the

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good Chris Adelphian Talks
podcast.

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