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Back to Basics – Love Your Friends (John 15:12-13)

LIGHTHOUSE SERMONS

1. Love your friends because you’re loved by Jesus (v.12)

Everything we are looking for in friends, we can find perfectly in Jesus. 

The love of Jesus _____ us to love ______!!! We love not to ___ love, but because we are ____________!! 

2. Love your friends by loving like Jesus (v.13)

How to lay your life down for your friends:

  1. Keep _____ at the center (for both christians and non-christians)
  1. Don’t make friendship _______: Sacrifice for your friends with no expectation for them to sacrifice in return
  1. Focus on _______ a good friend (before _____ good friends)

How to BE a good friend: 

  1. Be an example of faith and godliness

1 Timothy 4:12 – Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity

  1. Invest in friendships that are surface level AND deep

Romans 12:15 – Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.

Proverbs 20:5 – The purpose in a man’s heart is like deep water, but a man of understanding will draw it out

Galatians 6:2 – Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.

  1. Use your words to build up

Ephesians 4:29 – Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.

  1. Move toward people who are different from you

Ephesians 2-4

  1. Lift up your friends when they fall

Ecclesiastes 4:9-12 – Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. 10 For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up!

Discussion Questions

  • Share about a time when you felt loved by a friend. How did they show Christ-like love to you?
  • What is something that makes friendship hard? Share about a time when you felt unloved or uncared for by your friends; how does the love of Jesus secure you in those moments?
  • Look at the list of how to be a good friend. Which one stands out to you? How can you live that out this week?
  • Staffers: If you could give your junior high self advice on friendships, what would you say?