The following resource is from Desiring God.org.

Lord, you know how to make an old man happy.

And I thank you.

Be proud. and I thank you.

Be present now on these few minutes as you have been on the last few.

Magnify your son, I ask in his name. Amen.

I want to talk to you for a few minutes about the relationship between friendship

with Jesus and the aims of higher education.

Specifically, the relationship between the friendship with Jesus and the aims of Bethlehem College and seminary.

And the portion of God's word, if you have a phone or a Bible,

and you would like to follow along, it might be helpful,

but you don't have to. John Chapter 15

verses 12 to 15. John 15 12 this is my commandment that you love one another as I have loved you.

Greater love has no one than this than that he lay down his life for his friends.

You are my friends if you do what I command you.

No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing,

but I have called you friends.

For all that I have heard from my father, I have made known to you.

So three times, he refers to them as friends. He refers to them as his friends. He refers to them as his friends and those three statements

are intended to clarify what it means to be a friend of Jesus. Let's take them one at a time. Number one, verse 13. Greater

love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. If Jesus had not laid down his life for us, if he had not offered

himself in death in our place, we would not exist as his friends because, according to

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