What if the church’s biggest evangelism problem isn’t actually an evangelism problem at all? What if it’s a friendship problem?
Jesus was called a friend of sinners. But what made him such a remarkable friend? And what can we learn from him about being better friends to the people around us?
In this message, Peter Sondergeld explores Jesus’ encounter with blind Bartimaeus in Mark 10, uncovering four powerful principles of friendship. Jesus helps people get closer to him, allows himself to be interrupted, takes a genuine interest in what matters to others, and helps people become who they were made to be.
Along the way, we discover something remarkable about Jesus: he isn’t simply interested in what we need. He’s interested in what we want too. And his friendship doesn’t leave us as we are—it restores us, making us more fully human.
What if sharing Jesus with others could become something natural and normal, flowing out of genuine friendship rather than obligation or an evangelistic agenda?
This message is an invitation to rediscover the extraordinary beauty of ordinary friendship—and to become the kind of friend Jesus is to us.
