{"id":33702,"date":"2005-08-26T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2005-08-26T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermons\/friendship\/"},"modified":"2005-08-26T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2005-08-26T00:00:00","slug":"friendship","status":"publish","type":"sermons","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermons\/friendship\/","title":{"rendered":"Friendship"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-audio\"><audio controls src=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2005\/08\/18950.mp3\"><\/audio><\/figure>\n\n<p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">In this passage our Lord calls us his friends\nand gives us four tests or proofs, or signs of the friendship. Two signs or\nproofs are on his side and two signs or proofs of the friendship are on our\nside. This beautiful passage is perfectly balanced, like a poem that summarizes\nthe whole Thursday night discourse to his disciples.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <h2 class=\"wp-block-heading is-style-article-subhead1\">\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"subhead\">The first proof of\nfriendship: What I do for you<\/span>\n    <\/h2>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">First,\ntwo proofs of the friendship come from his side: &#8220;Greater love has no one than\nthis, that he lay down his life for his friends.&#8221; That&#8217;s the first proof of the\nfriendship. Jesus says this on Thursday night when the disciples cannot really\nunderstand what he&#8217;s talking about because they&#8217;re still feeling the victory of\nPalm Sunday, when great crowds came out to see Jesus.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">They\ndon&#8217;t know a conspiracy is brewing. They don&#8217;t know that within hours Jesus will\nbe arrested. They have to wait until later to understand what Jesus means. But\nat this point, he still makes the promise to them: He says, &#8220;I&#8217;m your friend.&#8221;<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">Here&#8217;s\nan ancient proof: the proof is what I do for you. Sometimes we put it crudely,\nbut we use that ancient proof all the time. We test a friend by what he does\nfor us. That&#8217;s how you know a friend.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">Suppose\nyou were driving your car on a rainy night, or an extremely hot night. In\nCalifornia you can have it either way; we don&#8217;t know how to handle rain.\nSuppose you&#8217;re on a deserted road, your car breaks down, it&#8217;s pouring rain or\nit&#8217;s 110 degrees, and you don&#8217;t have an institutional friend like AAA.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">It&#8217;s\none o&#8217;clock in the morning, and you&#8217;re trying to think who would come out with\ntheir car to help. Notice how quickly your brain will compute your friendships\nby this ancient standard.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">You\ngo right through the Rotary roster, the Kiwanis roster, the Berkeley Tennis\nClub roster, maybe the First Presbyterian Church of Berkeley roster. You think\nof all the acquaintances you know, and if you&#8217;re fortunate, there are one or\ntwo friends you might have who would take their shirt off their backs for you.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">When\nyou get on the phone and say, &#8220;My car is broken down. Would you mind coming\nout?&#8221;<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">&#8220;Hey,\nno sweat. Glad to come. Be right there.&#8221; That&#8217;s a friend. Right?<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">Your\nbrain calculates your friendships on the basis of the same ancient standard\nthat Jesus gives. You know a friend by what he or she does for you. Notice how\nour Lord makes himself an event and makes his proof of friendship an event that\nhappens, like someone actually showing up at one o&#8217;clock in the morning. That&#8217;s\nfriendship, not a Hallmark card.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">Jesus\nsays, &#8220;That&#8217;s what friendship is, and that&#8217;s how you know I&#8217;m your friend.&#8221; Do\nyou know that about Jesus Christ? Did you know that he lays his life down for\nyou? That&#8217;s the proof of his friendship.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <h2 class=\"wp-block-heading is-style-article-subhead1\">\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"subhead\">The second proof\nof friendship: I confide in you<\/span>\n    <\/h2>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">The\nsecond proof of his friendship is an expansion of the first, but it&#8217;s not put\nin heroic terms, as is the first. The first is put heroically: I&#8217;m your friend,\nand I prove it by laying my life down for you. The second proof of friendship\nfrom our Lord&#8217;s side is an expansion of the same principle. He says, I no\nlonger call you servants, because a servant does not know his master&#8217;s\nbusiness. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned\nfrom My Father I have made known to you.&#8221;<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">A\nfriend is someone who takes you into his or her confidence, talks things over\nwith you. That&#8217;s another ancient proof of friendship. We calculate our\nfriendships that way also. I&#8217;ll give you a sweaty-palmed student illustration.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">Suppose\nyou&#8217;re a student at UC Berkeley. You&#8217;re at home for the weekend, and you <\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">know\nthere&#8217;s a midterm at ten o&#8217;clock on Monday morning. At home you fritter away\nthe whole weekend. You go to a ball game. After all, it&#8217;s the last time the\nGiants will win in Candlestick. You did other things, and now it&#8217;s Monday\nmorning. You&#8217;re counting on the travel time to Berkeley to study up for the midterm.\nOtherwise, you will flunk out of Cal and never be able to come back to the\nschool again.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">I&#8217;m\ngoing to make this illustration complicated. You&#8217;re standing on the train\nplatform, and you see an acquaintance, but that person doesn&#8217;t see you. Here&#8217;s\na moment of truth where your brain with lightning speed will calculate the\nfriendship. You see that person and you think if you ride together, he&#8217;ll talk\nall about his trip to Europe, and he&#8217;ll tell you about his family problems.\nThat will take the whole trip to Berkeley, and you&#8217;ll flunk the exam.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">What\ndo you do? You calculate the friendship. <em>He&#8217;s\na nice guy, but I can&#8217;t talk to him today.<\/em> And you start reading the\nnewspaper intensely, watching out of the corner of your eye to see what car he\ngoes into. You go into a different car. You don&#8217;t want to snub him because that\nwould be a social <em>faux pas<\/em>. So, you just don&#8217;t see him. You get on the\ntrain, and you study.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">All right, now let me make the plot romantic.\nSuppose you stand on the platform, and here is the boy or the girl you&#8217;ve been\ntrying to get a chance to talk to. Suddenly you see him or her. You say to\nyourself, &#8220;Oh, man, I could take this exam any old time. If I flunk it, I&#8217;ll\ntake it next year. I mean, this is the rest of my life.&#8221; So you talk all the\nway to Berkeley. You calculated your priorities with lightning speed.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">Supposing\nyou saw a really good friend. You could say, &#8220;Don&#8217;t open your mouth the whole\nway. You can sit next to me and pray, because I have a midterm, but don&#8217;t say\none word.&#8221;<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">Now,\nthat&#8217;s a friend. You took him or her into your confidence, and that&#8217;s what\nJesus was talking about. He&#8217;s saying, &#8220;You&#8217;re my friends, and the proof of it\nis I take you into my confidence. I chose you. I saw you on the platform, and I\nwanted to ride with you.&#8221; That&#8217;s the ancient proof of friendship. Our Lord\ngives that proof to us.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">Have\nyou ever thought that God wants you here because he wants to do something with\nyou? He chose you to be with him on this train, and he wants to know what you\nthink.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">In\nHebrew, intercessory prayer means to think things through with God. God wants\nyour thoughts. That&#8217;s a mystery, but it&#8217;s taught in the Old and New Testaments.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">Here\nour Lord teaches it. He says, &#8220;You&#8217;re not slaves. A slave doesn&#8217;t even know\nwhat the master&#8217;s doing. But I told you everything my Father&#8217;s doing. I&#8217;ve\ntaken you into my confidence. You&#8217;re my friends, and there&#8217;s the proof of\nfriendship.&#8221;<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <h2 class=\"wp-block-heading is-style-article-subhead1\">\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"subhead\">The third proof of\nfriendship: Love as Jesus loved<\/span>\n    <\/h2>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">There\nare also two proofs of friendship from our side. The first one took me off\nbalance when I first read it. It doesn&#8217;t seem like friendship. Listen to it:<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">&#8220;My\ncommand is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one\nthan this, that he lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends, if you\ndo what I command.&#8221;<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">While\nwriting a commentary on John&#8217;s gospel, I remember saying, &#8220;Oh, Jesus, I love\nwhat you were doing up to that point, and then you ruined it!&#8221; I was\ndisappointed.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">Were\nyou a little disappointed when you heard that? &#8220;You&#8217;re my friends if you are\nlike a doormat and just say, &#8216;Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes!&#8217; all the time. Then you\ncan be my friend.&#8221;<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">It\nalmost sounded as if he meant that. In fact, I&#8217;ve actually heard messages on\nthis passage where it is taught as an obedience passage with Jesus saying that\nin order to be his friend you have to obey all his commandments. That&#8217;s the\nSermon on the Mount. It&#8217;s impossible. Does that mean no one can be his friend?<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">When\nI looked closely at the text, I realized this was not an omnibus passage on\nobedience. Jesus is not teaching obedience here. He&#8217;s teaching friendship here,\nand he has only one command here. Don&#8217;t misunderstand me. Our Lord does want\nyou to obey his commandments, but here he&#8217;s not talking about obedience. He&#8217;s\nnot making that the test of friendship here.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">Look\nclosely at the context. &#8220;This is my command: Love one another. Greater love has\nno one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends\nif you do what I command.&#8221; He has one command in mind in this passage, that we\nlove one another as he loves us.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">In\ncase anyone misunderstands him, he repeats it again, as would a good Hebrew\npoem. He repeats the line at the end of the passage, &#8220;Did you miss my\ncommandment? The commandment I have in mind is that you love one another.&#8221;\nThat&#8217;s how you prove your friendship.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">This\nis a friendship passage, and Jesus here has one command to prove the\nfriendship. When you love as I loved you, then you prove you&#8217;re my friend. Let\nme see if I can illustrate this with an off-the-wall illustration.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">When\nI was a boy, I lived just five miles from the Randolph Hearst estate on the\nMcCloud River. A castle was brought from Germany stone by stone and reassembled\nthere. It is incredible. I&#8217;d been there several times for the parties Mr. Hearst\ngave for children.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">Suppose\nyou&#8217;re being given a tour of the estate by your friend, the caretaker. You see\nthe manicured lawns, two swimming pools, and the beautiful imported marble from\nItaly. You go through the massive front door, and your eyes bulge as you see\nthe dining room table that seats 45 or 50 people, and imported tapestries on\nthe walls. Can you visualize Mr. Hearst at the head of the table?<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">You\nwalk into the grand hallway and see the stairway going to the upper rooms. In\nthe middle of this beautiful hallway is one table holding an alabaster vase\nimported from Egypt. The light is shining through the vase, and there&#8217;s a\nsingle daffodil in the vase\u0097understated, you know.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">You\nsay to your guide, &#8220;I have never seen such a beautiful vase as that alabaster\nvase.&#8221;<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">Your\nguide says, &#8220;You like that vase? Take it. It&#8217;s yours. I&#8217;m a good friend of the\nowner, and he&#8217;d want me to give it to you.&#8221;<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">Now,\nI have to stop and rule out two terrible possibilities, or my parable is\nruined.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">Here&#8217;s\nthe first possibility I have to rule out: Suppose your friend has worked in the\nestate too long and has become a little confused, like somebody at Wells Fargo\nwho begins to think the money is his. That would ruin my parable if he were\ngiving something away he has no right to give.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">Let&#8217;s\nrule out another possibility that&#8217;s even worse: Suppose your friend is a\nrobber, and he&#8217;s using you to sneak out the alabaster vase. That ruins the\nparable because he&#8217;s a robber.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">If\nyou can rule out those two possibilities, what has your friend just proved to\nyou when he gives you that vase? He&#8217;s proved to you that he&#8217;s a very good\nfriend of the owner. That&#8217;s what Jesus is talking about here. Jesus is saying,\n&#8220;I&#8217;ll tell you how to prove you&#8217;re my friend. Give away the best treasure in the\nhouse: my love.&#8221;<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">This\nis evangelical ethics. We love others because he first loved us. Beloved, let\nus love one another. How do you prove you&#8217;re forgiven? When you forgive others.\nMartin Luther in his incredible commentary on the Sermon on the Mount points\nout why you have the antiphonal part of the Lord&#8217;s Prayer, where our Lord said,\n&#8220;Forgive us our debts, our trespasses (or our sins), forgive us as we forgive\nthose who trespass against us, who are indebted to us, who sin against us.&#8221;<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">Martin\nLuther wondered why it&#8217;s antiphonal. He said, &#8220;Our Lord put that in the Lord&#8217;s\nPrayer so that we would have assurance of our forgiveness.&#8221; The only way you\ncan be assured of your forgiveness is when you&#8217;re able to forgive others.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">I&#8217;ve\nbeen a pastor long enough to know that when I meet someone who cannot forgive\nother people, I know that they themselves don&#8217;t know about their own\nforgiveness. They need to discover forgiveness so they can be freed up to\nforgive.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">When\nI meet someone who&#8217;s selfish and grasping, I know that person hasn&#8217;t\nexperienced God&#8217;s love because they&#8217;re not giving the treasure away. They need\nto know God&#8217;s love and forgiveness. Is that where you are today? Is it hard for\nyou to forgive? Then experience forgiveness. Experience the friendship of Jesus\nChrist, and you&#8217;ll be able to give away his treasures.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">My\nwife and daughters like detective stories, so for a long time, we faithfully\nwatched <em>Magnum P.I<\/em>. I didn&#8217;t like the\nshow that much, but Higgins was my favorite character. He&#8217;s my kind of character\u0097a\nlittle bit of a phony, with all those war stories about Burma. Probably he\nnever was in Burma, but I liked him.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">I\nnever bought the story line, however. In the story there&#8217;s a huge estate in\nHawaii that belongs to Robin Masters, who&#8217;s supposed to show up that night or\nthe next day for a visit. He never comes. Higgins is always worried sick that\nRobin Masters will come and fire him for something he&#8217;s done wrong.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">Look\nwhat Higgins does. He allows Tom Selleck to stay at the estate without paying\nrent. He lets Selleck use the Ferrari, which gets wrecked about every other\nepisode. There are dogs running all over the garden, digging up plants. They\nhold huge garden parties. In about every third or fourth episode, somebody\ncomes with an Uzi and machine guns the estate, but Higgins never gets fired.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">On\nthe last episode, Selleck is standing next to Higgins, and he says, &#8220;Oh, by the\nway, Higgins, I&#8217;ve been meaning to ask you a question. Are you Robin Masters?&#8221;\nOf course, Higgins was Robin Masters, and that&#8217;s the last line of the show.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">I\nwant to tell you something that&#8217;s very important: You are not Jesus Christ. In\nfact, you&#8217;re a dangerous person if you think you are. That&#8217;s how cults get\nstarted. You&#8217;re not the Savior. You&#8217;re dangerous if you&#8217;re a parent who thinks\nyou have to save your children. You&#8217;re not the Messiah. This church is not the\nMessiah; it can&#8217;t save anyone.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">Then,\nwhat are you? You&#8217;re a very good friend of Jesus Christ, and that&#8217;s better. You\ncan give away the treasures because Jesus Christ is your friend, and he has\nauthority. He&#8217;s the king; you&#8217;re his friend.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <h2 class=\"wp-block-heading is-style-article-subhead1\">\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"subhead\">The fourth proof\nof friendship: Prayer<\/span>\n    <\/h2>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">The\nfinal proof of friendship is the proof of prayer. Jesus says, &#8220;The Father will\ngive you whatever you ask in my name.&#8221; That&#8217;s the flip side of &#8220;I take you into\nmy confidence.&#8221; He says, &#8220;If you want to be my friend, take me into your\nconfidence.&#8221; Pray. The invitation to prayer is the final proof.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">Have\nyou ever thought of your prayer as proof of your friendship with Jesus? Pray.\nAsk favors. Use my name with the Father. That&#8217;s exactly what the text says. You\ncan ask the Father using my name. That&#8217;s something a friend can do.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">I\nwas reading an article in <em>The New York\nTimes<\/em> the other day. It said that about 80 percent of boys get their first\njob through a friend of their father. Think of the tragedy of American life\ntoday with so many little boys growing up without a father. Perhaps you can\nplay that role with some young person.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">Jesus\nChrist plays that role with us. &#8220;I&#8217;m your friend. You can pray in my name to\nthe Father. You can use my name. I&#8217;m the one who&#8217;s going to give my life for\nyou.&#8221; You can use his name. He&#8217;s your friend.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">Are\nyou the friend of Jesus Christ? Do you know his love for you? If you have few\nfriends, let me tell you, you&#8217;ve got one who&#8217;s worth all of them.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">\n        <span style=\"\" class=\"\">&#8220;<\/span>\n      <\/span>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\"> Earl Palmer<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <h2 class=\"wp-block-heading is-style-article-subhead2\">\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"subhead\">Preaching Today Issue #105<\/span>\n    <\/h2>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">\n        <a href=\"http:\/\/www.preachingtodaysermons.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"\">www.PreachingTodaySermons.com<\/a>\n      <\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">A resource of Christianity Today\nInternational<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <strong>\n        <span style=\"\" class=\"\">For Additional Preaching Today Resources:<\/span>\n      <\/strong>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">\n        <a href=\"http:\/\/www.preachingtoday.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"\">www.PreachingToday.com<\/a>\n      <\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">Get top-notch sermon illustrations, relevant articles, preaching\ntips, and more!<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">\n        <a href=\"http:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/go\/PTA\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"\">www.ChristianityToday.com\/go\/PTA<\/a>\n      <\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <em>\n        <span style=\"\" class=\"\">Preaching Today Audio Series<\/span>\n      <\/em>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\"> delivers today&#8217;s best sermons to\nyour door each month \u0097 on tape or compact disc. <\/span>\n    <\/p>","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[306],"tax_ctp_authors":[1494],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_field_guide_subcategory":[],"tax_ctp_field_guides":[],"tax_ctp_format":[170],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[412],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_sermon_series":[],"tax_ctp_tags":[3644,3819,4010,4021,4022,4076,4271,4395,4399,4519,4679,4708,4905,4953,5218],"tax_ctp_topics":[],"class_list":["post-33702","sermons","type-sermons","status-publish","hentry","tax_ctp_authors-earl-palmer","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-community","tax_ctp_tags-divine-love","tax_ctp_tags-forgiveness","tax_ctp_tags-friendship","tax_ctp_tags-friendship-of-god","tax_ctp_tags-good-deeds","tax_ctp_tags-international-day-of-prayer","tax_ctp_tags-love","tax_ctp_tags-love-of-christ","tax_ctp_tags-national-day-of-prayer","tax_ctp_tags-prayer","tax_ctp_tags-priorities","tax_ctp_tags-see-you-at-the-pole","tax_ctp_tags-service","tax_ctp_tags-unselfishness"],"acf":{"scripture_references":[{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Friendship - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermons\/friendship\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Friendship - CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In this passage our Lord calls us his friends and gives us four tests or proofs, or signs of the friendship. Two signs or proofs are on his side and two signs or proofs of the friendship are on our side. 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