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“Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.”
When you read the teachings of Jesus, you have a choice.
You can hear Him as a servant, or you can hear Him as a friend.
That choice matters more than we often realize—because how you hear Him determines how you apply what He says, how you experience God’s presence, and whether the Christian life feels relational and empowering or heavy and legalistic.
Jesus Himself makes this distinction explicit. In John 15:15, He says, “No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you.”
That statement is not poetic filler. It is a deliberate redefinition of our relationship with God. And it sits right in the middle of one of the most important stretches of teaching Jesus ever gave—John chapters 14 through 17—where He prepares His disciples for life after His physical departure.
In those chapters, Jesus is not merely teaching theology. He is charging His friends with the work they are going to continue once He leaves. He is explaining how the Spirit will live in them, guide them, empower them, and reveal truth to them. And at the same time, He repeatedly emphasizes the importance of keeping His commandments.
That combination—Spirit empowerment and obedience—has often been misunderstood. When heard through the ears of a servant, Jesus’ words can sound like conditions, requirements, or spiritual hoops we must jump through to access God. But when heard through the ears of a friend, something very different emerges.
And that difference is the heart of this message.
The Gap Between Belief and Experience
One of the most common struggles among believers is not a lack of belief—it’s a lack of experience.
We believe God loves us.
We believe Christ died for us.
We believe grace is available.
We believe the Spirit lives in us.
Yet many people quietly live with a disconnect between what they believe is true and what they actually experience in daily life.
This isn’t about hypocrisy. It’s about real people dealing with real pressures—fear, anxiety, disappointment, insecurity, relational tension, unresolved pain—and wondering how the gospel actually applies when “the rubber meets the road.”
We know what Scripture says. But we also know what our experience feels like. And too often, those two things don’t line up.
That gap is where frustration grows. It’s where people begin to think God is distant, withholding, or unpredictable. And it’s often where people slip into a servant mindset—believing that God loves them, but still feeling like they’re at His mercy.
Servant Thinking Produces Confusion
Jesus directly addresses this issue when He says in John 15:15, “A servant does not know what his master is doing.”
That line explains so much.
When you think like a servant, confusion feels normal. You’re always trying to discern what God might be doing, why something happened, or whether He’s pleased with you. You’re left interpreting circumstances, emotions, and outcomes as signs of God’s will.
I said it plainly in the sermon: “If you’re confused, you’re thinking like a servant.”
Jesus does not want His followers living in confusion. He doesn’t want us guessing. He doesn’t want us reading tea leaves in world events or personal circumstances to try to decipher His intentions.
That’s why He follows that statement with something astonishing: “But I have called you friends, for everything I have learned from My Father I have made known to you.”
God is not hiding from you. He is not withholding information. He is not interested in keeping you in the dark.
We Don’t Interpret God Through Circumstances
One of the dangers of servant thinking is that it tries to understand God by interpreting physical events.
I shared an example in the message of someone claiming that an ice storm was a form of God’s justice because the word “justice” contains the word “ice.” As strange as that may sound, that kind of thinking is more common than we realize.
We look at disasters, sickness, political turmoil, or personal hardship and assume God must be communicating something through them.
But that thinking is backwards.
As I said in the sermon, “You don’t understand the spirit by a physical circumstance. You look at God, you extrapolate truth from Him based on His Word, then you look at the circumstance.”
The brokenness in the world is not a message from God—it is the result of sin entering creation. Death, decay, storms, sickness, and disorder are not divine communication tools. They are evidence of a world not functioning as God intended.
Jesus didn’t interpret storms to understand the Father—He spoke to them.
The Holy Spirit Declares What Belongs to Jesus
In John 16:13–15, Jesus explains the role of the Holy Spirit after His departure. He says the Spirit will guide us into truth, and then He adds something critical: “He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you.”
That phrase tells us exactly what the Spirit does.
The Holy Spirit doesn’t exist to create mystery, confusion, or dependence on spiritual elites. He exists to declare what belongs to Jesus.
And what belongs to Jesus?
Everything He has authority over.
As I said in the message, “What belongs to Jesus is what He has authority over—and that’s everything.”
That means when the Spirit speaks, reveals, or moves, He is testifying to Christ’s finished work—His victory, His authority, His righteousness, His peace, His life—and making those realities known to us.
This is why genuine prophecy always points back to Jesus. It doesn’t elevate fear. It doesn’t make people dependent. It doesn’t leave you confused. It testifies to what Christ has accomplished and invites you into expectation.
Love Is the Environment Where God Manifests
Throughout John 14–17, Jesus repeatedly connects the manifestation of God’s presence to one specific thing: keeping His commandments.
This happens at least four or five times.
In John 14:15–17, Jesus says, “If you love Me, keep My commandments. And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper… the Spirit of truth… for He dwells with you and will be in you.”
In John 14:21, He says, “He who has My commandments and keeps them… I will love him and manifest Myself to him.”
In John 14:23, He adds, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word… and We will come to him and make Our home with him.”
And again in John 15:9–11, “If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love… that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full.”
If you hear those statements as a servant, they sound conditional and legalistic. They sound like rules you must obey to earn God’s presence.
But Jesus is not speaking as a lawgiver. He is speaking as a friend.
His Commandments Are Love
Jesus is careful to define His commandments clearly.
In John 13:34–35, He says, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you… By this all will know that you are My disciples.”
And the foundation of that love is revealed in 1 John 4:19: “We love Him because He first loved us.”
That verse changes everything.
We don’t love God to get Him to love us. We love Him because He already does.
Obedience is not a prerequisite for relationship—it is a response to it.
As I said in the sermon, “You can’t love Him unless you know He loves you first.”
When you hear Jesus’ commandments as a servant, they feel like pressure. When you hear them as a friend, they feel like an invitation into alignment.
Love Is Not Permissive—It Is Transformative
Jesus’ love was never permissive. It never ignored sin. But it also never shamed or condemned people into transformation.
Love rescues. Love strengthens. Love matures.
I reflected in the message on how Jesus loved His disciples before the cross—rough fishermen, a tax collector, flawed men who didn’t fully understand Him. He walked with them. He was patient. He was kind. He didn’t excuse sin, but He also didn’t relate to them through condemnation.
Love doesn’t let sin stay—it empowers you to leave it behind.
As I said, “The more I feel and know His love for me, the less I even desire those things.”
This is why love is not sentimental. It is powerful. It grounds us. It stabilizes us. It changes who we are from the inside out.
Joy, Peace, and Stability Flow From Love
In John 15:11, Jesus says He spoke these things “that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full.”
Joy is not something we chase. It’s something that remains when we abide in love.
And this is where the kingdom becomes tangible. Scripture tells us that “the kingdom of God is righteousness, peace, and joy.” When peace is ruling your heart, you are experiencing the kingdom now.
This is why Jesus’ words are not about hype, revival moments, or emotional highs. They’re about a steady, anchored life—one that produces fruit over time.
Unity and Love Are the Church’s Witness
In John 17:20–26, Jesus prays not only for His disciples, but for us—for all who would believe through their word.
And what does He pray for?
Unity.
“That they all may be one… that the world may believe that You sent Me.”
Jesus does not say the world will believe because of miracles alone. He says the world will believe when they see love-fueled unity.
Love is evangelistic.
It reveals the reality of Christ to a watching world.
Hearing Jesus as a Friend Changes Everything
When you hear Jesus as a servant, you strive.
When you hear Him as a friend, you respond.
When you hear Him as a servant, obedience feels heavy.
When you hear Him as a friend, obedience flows naturally.
When you hear Him as a servant, you fear failure.
When you hear Him as a friend, you run toward Him when you fall.
This is why Jesus says plainly, “I no longer call you servants… I have called you friends.”
And this is why love must become more than a concept. It must become a way of life.
As I said at the end of the message, “When you let Him love you, He’ll speak to you.”
That is the invitation.
Let Him love you—especially when it’s hard.
That’s where His Spirit works most powerfully.
