The Ship Series - Friends

I’ve got Friends in low places

John 15:12–17 NRSV

“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father. You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name. I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another.

Ecclesiastes 4:9–10 NRSV

Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up the other; but woe to one who is alone and falls and does not have another to help.

—> We are back to where we started

John Ch. 15

—> Like everything else we have talked about in our relationships for us to get friendship right with each other we must be friends with Christ.

—> This isn’t a cop-out but just the reality

—> When our relationships suffer and it is on our end it is usually a product of our lack of relationship with Christ.

So then if our relationship with Christ is in a good place how then do we proceed with our relationships to others?

—> Love one another as I have loved you.

John 15:12 NRSV

“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.

—> sacrifice

John 15:13 NRSV

No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.

—> In our friendships are we sacrificial?

—> No Secrets

John 15:15 NRSV

I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father.

—> Are there things in our friendships that are off the table?

—> Follow through

John 15:17 NRSV

I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another.