Now the part of the chapter here that I want to focus on is beginning in verse number 8.
It says,
There is one alone, and there is not a second.
Yea, ye have neither child nor brother,
yet is there no end of all his labor.
Neither is his eyes satisfied with riches.
Neither saith he, for whom do I labor and bereave my soul of good.
This is also vanity, yea, it is a sore travail.
Two are better than one, and that's the title of my sermon this morning.
Two are better than one.
And it says, because they have a good reward for their labor,
if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow.
But woe to him that is alone when he falleth,
for he hath not another to help him up.
Again, if two lie together, then they have heat.
But how can one be warm alone?
And if one prevail against him, two shall withstand him,
and a threefold cord is not quickly broken.
I want to preach this morning on this subject,
two are better than one.
Two are better than one.
Turn to Proverbs, because you're in Ecclesiastes.
I'm going to show you some verses from Proverbs.
Let's look at Proverbs starting in chapter 17.
Two are better than one.
I want to talk about this morning the importance of having good friends,
of having the right kind of people around you,
the right kind of people that you associate with being yoked together
and on the same team with the right kind of people
so that you're not alone.
You need to have somebody there with you to help you,
to lift you up when you fall, to be on the same team with you.
In chapter 17, the Bible says,
A friend loveth at all times,
and a brother is born for adversity.
You see, the Bible is saying that a true friend
is somebody who's going to love you at all times.
They're going to be with you in season and out of season.
When you're popular, when you're not popular,
when you have something to offer them,
when you have nothing to offer,
they are going to be there to stand with you.
They'll love you at all times.
And it says a brother is born for adversity.
That means they're there through the hard times,
not just when things are going good.
Look, if you would, at what...
I'll show you some things in Proverbs,
because I've got more to show you.
Actually, I'll just quote it to you.
Let's do it that way.
In 2 Timothy 1, Paul said,
The Lord gave mercy unto the house of Onesiphorus,
for he oft refreshed me and was not ashamed of my shame.
But when he was in Rome, he sought me out very diligently and found me.
The Lord grant unto him that he may find mercy of the Lord in that day,
and in how many things he ministered unto me at Ephesus thou knowest very well.
You see, Onesiphorus was a real friend to Paul,
because when Paul was in jail, he came and refreshed him.
He came and visited him.
And he said he was not ashamed of his shame.
Many people at that time, Paul said,
had turned back and turned away from him,
and no man stood with him.
And yet his one friend Onesiphorus came and sought him out.
He didn't hide from him. He didn't pretend he didn't know him.
Rather, he did the opposite.
He looked for him, went to him, refreshed him,
stood with him, and was not ashamed if he called his friend,
even when he was going through the hard times.
He said he oft refreshed me and was not ashamed of my shame.
You see, today we need to understand what friendship really is.
It's not about what teenagers think it is many times.
Like, oh, you like Britney Spears? Well, so do I.
Let's be friends.
You know, this is a type of friendship.
Oh, you're a skater? I'm a skater.
You know, we're all friends. We're all buddies.
Now, look, when I was a teenager, those were the kind of friends that I had.
I basically sought out my friends based upon, do we listen to the same music?
Do we watch the same movies? Do we have the same hobbies?
And basically, these were my best buddies, my best friends.
But where are they today?
I don't know them. They don't know me.
I mean, these kind of friends come and go.
And I remember those type of friends, when something bad would happen to you,
they were never there for you. They never stood with you.
Those aren't your real friends.
Let me give you an example. I've told the story before.
I don't want to go into the whole story for detail.
But at the time, I was attacked by dogs as a 13-year-old.
Who's already heard the story? Put it up your hand.
A lot of people, you know, about maybe one-fourth of the people that are here have heard the story.
But I'm not going to go into great detail.
But I was basically in a P.E. class at a Christian school, Big Three Christian School in Sacramento.
And we would jog over to the park.
Well, I had finished my lunch a little bit early, and I was going to get a head start down there.
And so I'm running down there by myself.
And these two big dogs, and they were three-quarter Rottweiler and one-quarter German Shepherd.
And they were big, mean dogs. They weighed over 150 pounds each.
I'm 13, and I weighed about 120. And they're 155 each.
These dogs just chews me off, run over to me, start circling me, growling at me.
And I'm saying, you know, nice doggy.
And then one of them just lunges and bites me right here on my arm.
The other one lunges right here and bites my backside.
I kicked one of them in the face and just started running.
Well, they're jumping on me. They're knocking me down. They're biting me.
And I mean, I literally was pretty close to being killed because, I mean, they were trying to kill me.
I mean, they're jumping, you know, tearing me up.
And I'm trying to get away. I'm running. I'm falling down.
And as I'm running down the street, I was about a quarter mile or so from the school.
And I'm trying to get back toward the school.
Well, all of a sudden, who comes around the corner but the whole P.E. class.
About 20-some guys come jogging around the corner.
20-some guys. And these are my friends, right? Because they're all my friends.
Three of them had baseball bats in their hands.
Two of them had aluminum baseball bats. One of them had a wooden baseball bat.
Okay? And there's 20 or so of them. There's one of me being attacked by a doctor.
So what do I do? I start screaming.
Help! Help! Help!
You know, I'm running toward them. They all just stopped. They all froze.
And they just stood there as a group and just looked at me with their eyes real big.
You know, I mean, they're seeing me getting tore up bad.
And I'm screaming for help. They all just froze.
And then, at once, they all just ran away.
And just left me behind.
Nobody helped me. Nobody even... I mean, they all hesitated for the same amount of time and they all just left.
They ran back across the street, went into the school, and stood behind the glass doors.
In the building, just watching what would happen. Okay?
So I'm still getting attacked. I'm bleeding. I'm getting torn up.
And I run out. This is how I finally got away.
I ran into a busy street where the school was on the corner of.
And almost got hit by a car, you know, because people are slamming on their brake.
And all the screeching of tires and the honking of horns scared the dogs.
They would not venture into the street.
And so they stopped right there at the sidewalk.
I got across the street, you know, went over to the school.
And I walk up to those doors and they're all crowded there looking out, you know.
And as soon as I get there, they all just parted like the Red Sea.
They all just kind of parted and just stood there and didn't say anything.
I walked in and then somebody from the school rushed over and, you know, brought me over to give me first aid.
And they took me to the emergency room and everything.
And it wasn't like I was in critical condition or anything. I just had bites all over me.
I was just bleeding. I just had wounds.
And I counted 21 bite marks afterward that I could actually see a bite mark that broke into the flesh and bled.
So I used 21 bites and it just could have been bad if they could have tore into my throat or who knows.
I mean, that's what they were trying to do. They were trying to kill me.
And these dogs were mean.
And so I asked one of them afterward, I said, you know, why didn't you help me?
I was sitting down and I said, why didn't you help me?
I said, you have a baseball bat here and there's 20 of you.
And he just said, man, I feel like an idiot. He's like, I don't know.
He said, I have no idea why.
He's like, we just got scared. We just left, you know.
So I was thinking to myself, you know what, if somebody that you really loved was being attacked, you would help them.
I mean, think about that. I mean, if it was your child, if it was your best friend, if it was your wife or your daughter or your mother or your sister.
If it was someone that you really loved and cared about, no matter how scared you were, you would have gone in and done something to help.
It just shows, what I'm trying to illustrate with that is just the shallowness of our friendship sometimes.
You know, people who you think are your friend, you think that they're there for you, they're not really your friend in many cases.
Because people think that your friend is just somebody that you like to hang around with because they're fun.
But let me tell you something, sometimes your real friends, it's not always going to be fun to be their friend.
But you got to be their friend when it's not fun too. That's the whole point of saying that a friend loveth at all times.
And brothers are born for adversity.
And so that's just an illustration about sometimes who you think is your friend is not really your friend.
And we ought to realize that when we have real friends, when we have a true friend, we ought to cherish that person and realize the value of that person.
Because a lot of people have never had a real friend in their life and never will have a real friend.
And so if you have a good friend, you ought to be thankful to God for that friend.
Because even if you just have one good friend like that, two good friends that will love you at all times, they'll stand with you like an Onesimus.
Hey, that's really a blessing to have that.
Look, if you would, we're in problems. Look at chapter 18, verse 24.
We're just looking at some verses on friendships from Proverbs.
Look at chapter 18, verse 24.
A man that hath friends must shew himself friendly.
So basically it's not about having friends, it's about being a friend.
He's saying if you want to have friends, be a friend to someone else.
A man that hath friends must shew himself friendly.
And there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother.
That's the type of friend that I'm talking about today.
Look at chapter 27. It says in chapter 27, verse 6,
Faithful are the wounds of a friend, but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful.
Sometimes your friend may not always tell you what you want to hear.
They're not always going to be the one who's just kind of a yes man that makes you feel good.
But they're going to tell you the truth. They love you enough to tell you the truth.
I mean, some people, I've said things to maybe, or maybe just preached something and it made them angry and it made them mad.
But they didn't realize that I love them. I'm just trying to tell them the truth.
And so the kisses of an enemy are deceitful.
Just because somebody kisses you, just because somebody kisses up to you, just because somebody tells you what you want to hear,
doesn't mean that that person's really your friend.
And I'm going to get to it in a little bit. Who is the real friend that loves you?
Because a lot of your friends, they may tell you, oh, I love you, you're my buddy, you're my pal, best friends forever.
But where are they a year later? Where are they six months later?
Where are they when you're in the hospital? Where are they when you're in jail?
Where are they when you're blasphemed and criticized?
Where are you when you're no longer popular on the campus or at the job or when you're in trouble,
when you lose all your money, when you're at execration?
Where are they then if they love you so much?
The kisses of an enemy are deceitful. Faithful are the wounds of a friend.
So it's not necessarily how nice they are, whether they're really your friend.
Look at verse 10. It says,
If you want to have a friend like that, you need to start by being a friend like that and not forsaking your friends.
Look at verse 17.
Iron sharpeneth iron, so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend.
And so basically a lot of people might say, well, you know, I don't really need friends.
I'm the loner. I'm going solo.
But God said two are better than one.
God said two are better than one because if you fall, you want to have somebody that's going to lift you up.
That's why church is so important.
That's why we go to church.
Not just to hear preaching.
Not just to sing songs out of the hymnal.
Because you know what? I can sing those songs out of the hymnal at my house.
I can turn on the Internet and download preaching and listen to preaching.
And people today think that the radio preacher is a substitute for church.
They think a TV preacher is a substitute for church.
They think going on the Internet is a substitute for church.
There are people who even listen to my sermon every week and use it as a substitute for church.
I can list for you a whole bunch of people who do not go to church and they listen to my sermons, my three-time-a-week sermon.
They are not in church.
If you want to know if you're in church right now, can you see the lights in my eyes?
Then you're in church.
Because church is the congregation. It's the assembly.
And we don't just come to church just to hear Pastor Anderson preach.
We come to church to fellowship with God's people who ought to be our friends.
Who we ought to stand with and love them and support them and be there for them.
That's what church is all about.
Jesus said,
And you say, why would they know that?
Because the world does not have real love. That's why.
And it's rare to find people with real love that actually love you and will actually be there for you when you need them.
That will actually stand with you and not forsake you just as soon as things aren't going your way.
Just as soon as you're not popular or whatever.
Turn, if you would, to...
Let's go ahead and go to...
I'm trying to think where I want to go next here because my thing is in a little bit different order.
Let's look at 2 Corinthians chapter 6.
2 Corinthians chapter 6 and I'm going to turn to 1 John to give you something out of 1 John.
2 Corinthians chapter 6.
I'm turning to 1 John.
And the Bible reads in 2 Corinthians chapter 6 verse 14.
Now, wait a minute.
There's a little saying here that we ought not to be unequally yoked together with unbelievers.
What does it mean to be yoked together?
Well, basically you're on the same team. You're joined up with them.
If you think about a yoke, a yoke is something that you put over two oxen to cause them to both pull together.
Like let's say you put two oxen under a yoke and they're going to pull a cart or they're going to pull a plow.
It's to basically keep them from going two different speeds, two different directions.
Thereby, you know, the cart is not going to be pulled straight.
So you put a yoke that's, you know, a wooden yoke that will keep them right next to each other all the time.
And if one of them goes a little faster, it's kind of dragging the other one along.
And they both go the same rate. They're both working together. They're going the same direction.
Amos 3, 3 says, can two walk together except they be agreed?
And so God's saying don't get yoked up with unbelievers.
Don't team up with them. Don't join up with them.
For example, I'm not going to sit here and join up and say, well, you know, there's this other church
and they don't believe the gospel like we believe it. You know, they think that you have to work your way to heaven.
We believe that salvation is by grace through faith alone. Believe all the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.
They believe that, you know, you have to be baptized to be saved and you have to go to church to be saved.
You have to live a good life to be saved.
But we both agree on this one certain issue. You know, we're both going to get together.
We're going to join up. We're going to feed the poor.
We're both going to join up and get together and do something political or we're going to join up and march for this.
No, we will not be yoked together with unbelievers.
We will do God's work with those who believe on Jesus Christ.
If we get together with anybody and do anything that's for some greater good or for some cause or for Jesus Christ,
it's going to be with other people who believe on Jesus Christ.
That's the only people we're going to yoke up with.
I'm not going to get together for a soul-winning campaign with people who don't believe the gospel.
Okay, that doesn't make any sense.
I'm going to yoke together. I'm going to get yoked two by two.
You and I will get together. We'll go out and knock some doors and get together.
You guys will get together two by two and get people saved and yoke with others who believe like you believe.
We shouldn't be yoked together with unbelievers.
But on the same token, you should not marry an unbeliever, okay?
Because if you're a Christian and you're marrying an unbeliever, you're unequally yoked.
And there are many, many people who I've known who are in this situation where they believe on Jesus Christ,
they're saved, they're on their way to heaven, and then they're married to somebody who's not saved.
That's not a good situation.
Because then the children, they go out, they're torn between two things,
and then you want to live for God, you want to serve God, you want to really celebrate God.
Your wife or your husband doesn't understand that.
They don't comprehend that. They don't get that. They're not even saved.
And it's going to hold you back is what I'm trying to say.
Because if you're in that yoke, you're trying to go ahead, you're trying to do something, they're going to hold you back.
Because you're not going anywhere without them when you're yoked up with them.
And so it's very important who you marry that they're a believer, that they're saved, that they're a Christian.
Because God's saying, don't be unequally yoked together as unbelievers.
But even just from a human standpoint, it blows my mind when I see Christian young men and Christian young ladies,
you know, dating an unbeliever. It blows my mind.
Now, I don't have anything against you, you know, taking an unbeliever and the first date is you giving them the gospel.
You know, great, okay. But sitting there and, oh, this is my boyfriend and he's an unbeliever.
This is my girlfriend, she's an unbeliever.
Obviously, we want to reach out to unbelievers.
Obviously, we want to give them the gospel, people at work.
And, you know, we want to be friendly to them and nice to them and curtsy stuff.
But, you know, I don't have close friends that are unbelievers.
My close friends are God's people.
But people that I rely upon, that are my friends, and I'll tell you why.
Because I know that those are the only real friends anyway.
And I'm going to get to that in a minute.
Because the Bible says this in 1 John.
Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God and everyone that loveth is born of God and knoweth God.
Did you get that? I'm going to read it again.
Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God and everyone that loveth is born of God and knoweth God.
That right there makes it very clear that the only people who really have love are those who are born of God.
And not only that, but that know God, okay.
You can't tell me that the unbeliever really loves you when they don't even know what love is because love comes from God, according to the Bible.
Love is of God. And everyone that loveth is born of God and knoweth God.
Those who really love are people who are saved, number one.
They're born of God, and then they know God.
Now you don't automatically know God when you say,
Paul, who had been saved for years, who was a great Christian, that I may know him.
And the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable unto his death.
You know God over time. You get to know him more. You love him more.
You don't start out loving God supremely. You might just love him a little bit or not love him at all.
But then as you grow in love, it says we love him because he first loved us.
And there are people in this room who love God more than others.
There are people in this room who know God more than others, who know the Bible more than others, who have more fellowship with God than others.
And the truth of the matter is that the most loving people, the people who truly will love you, not as the world loveth,
but who really love you are God's people because they're born of God and they know God.
And that's why it's so ridiculous. These young people, they just love so-and-so and they just can't give up their unsaved boyfriend or their unsaved girlfriend.
They don't love you anyway. Don't you want to marry girls? Don't you want to marry a man who loves you?
Don't you want to marry a girl, guys, that loves you? You've got to marry somebody who's saved, who loves God, who knows God.
Instead of just looking upon the outward appearance, the Bible says favor is deceitful and beauty is vain.
But a woman that feareth the Lord, she shall be praised.
Instead of just choosing based upon the looks, choosing upon the outward appearance, and that's how shallow our world is,
women have to fit this certain mold of Hollywood. They have to be skinny and anorexic looking practically.
They have to look a certain way. They have to be caked in makeup a certain way. They have to dress a certain way.
And it's just this one norm. You have to fit this Hollywood norm. And that's what you guys are looking for.
No, guys, you need to be looking for a woman that fears the Lord.
God didn't make everybody look the same, but the Bible said He made all things beautiful in His time.
God creates people the way they are. He didn't want us all to look the same. He made everybody look different.
The only time usually people would be ugly, per se, is usually when they've done it to themselves.
Through drugs, through smoking, through overeating. You go to the school today of a public school and the people are just unkempt.
It's not that they're ugly. It's not that they're not nice looking people.
It's not that it's not a nice looking young man or a young lady. It's because they're unkempt.
They look like a slob. They didn't take a shower. Their hair's all messed up. Their pants are sagging down.
They're slovenly. They're sloppy. They're lazy. Look, God created people the way that they are.
And what you ought to be looking for, young man, is a woman that fears the Lord.
And what you ought to be looking for, young lady, is a man who loves God, not just he fits the Hollywood norm of tall, dark, and handsome.
Why don't you get one that's safe, separated, sanctified, instead of tall, dark, and handsome?
Why don't you find one that loves God, that we've sold to read the Bible?
He's the one who's going to be faithful to you. Listen to me, teenage girls. Listen to me, single girls.
He's the one who's going to be faithful to you. He's the one that's not going to be looking at a bunch of porno.
He's the one who's going to love you and be there for you and be faithful to you.
He's going to provide for you financially. He's going to care for you. He's going to stand with you.
He's not going to forsake you. But let me tell you something, 75% of the marriages out in the world are ending in divorce.
Because he's ready to move on. Because he's ready to go be with somebody else who's younger or prettier or doesn't have the hangups that you have.
You see, the one who's going to stay with you is the one who loves God.
And so why don't you just look past all these otherworldly things and say, hey, I'm going to find somebody who loves God.
Don't sit there and be sucked in. And those who are already married or already made the mistake, no, I'm talking to the young people.
I'm talking to my children right now. I'm talking to your children. They need to hear this because they need to wake up and realize,
hey, the man who's going to be there for you is the one who's saved, who loves God.
And the same thing goes for you guys. You ought to find that girl that's the one who loves God, that's saved, that's spiritual.
She's the one who's going to be a hard worker, like it says in Proverbs 31.
She's the one who's going to love you, who's going to care for you, who's going to be faithful to you,
who's going to be there for you and support you during the hard times and not be an added burden to you.
Okay, find the one that's saved, that loves God is what I'm saying. Don't let Hollywood tell you who to marry or who to date.
And so don't go to the world. If you go to the world looking for love, no.
The world thinks that love, they basically equate love with the bedroom, with what goes on in the bedroom.
That's basically what their meaning of love stops there.
That's why these bunch of perverts will take the Holy Bible, these bunch of sodomites and queers,
will take the Holy Bible and say, oh, see, the Bible says that David loved Jonathan.
And they'll try to say that David was a homosexual because David loved Jonathan.
Wait a minute. That's not what love is, folks.
There are a lot of men that I love. There are a lot of women that I love.
It doesn't mean something carnal or physical. It's talking about the real kind of love that we're reading here of friendship.
There are a lot of people that I love in this world.
And I'm not going to sit there and listen to this garbage. All it is is just equating love with the bedroom.
And that's what our world has taught. That's what our world has done with TV, with movies.
That's all it's about. You go on the date, you fall in love, and then they hit the sack and fornicate,
and then next week they move on to somebody else.
Look, this is the wicked society we're living in. People don't even know what love is.
They don't even know what real friendship is.
And that's because everyone that loveth, the Bible rings true, is born of God and knoweth God.
And so that's another reason not to be uniquely yoked together.
Where did I turn to? What chapter did I turn to?
Anybody there? We're still in 2 Corinthians 6.
And so he says, look, be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers.
For what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness?
The two don't have anything in common, is what he's saying.
That's what the word fellowship means. It means you have something in common.
What fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness?
What communion hath light with darkness?
He's saying, look, light and darkness don't have anything in common.
Light, meaning those who are saved, darkness, those who are unsaved.
Righteousness being those that are saved, unrighteousness being those that are unsaved.
He's saying, what conqueror hath Christ with Belial?
Or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel?
You see, if you are truly living a separated Christian, godly, righteous soul in life,
you won't even have enough in common with unsafe people to want to be their friend as much.
And again, I'm not saying you shouldn't go out to eat with them and reach out to them,
try to get them saved, try to be a friend to them.
I'm saying you're close buddies.
Turn to Malachi 3. You're close friends.
Right before the book of Matthew, Malachi 3, the last book in the Old Testament.
You're close friends that you really want to be there for you should be saved Christians.
Because the Bible says, we're not of the world.
He said, they're of the world, therefore speak they of the world and the world heareth them.
He that is God heareth us, he that is not of God heareth not us.
You're by no means the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.
Beloved, behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us,
that we should be called the sons of God.
Therefore the world knoweth us not because it knew him not.
And so if you can just fit in with the world,
if you go to that college campus and you're just the coolest person on campus,
you go to work and you're just the coolest guy on the job,
now you've got to be the best worker on the job,
you've got to be the most productive on the job,
but don't tell me that you're just the coolest person amongst all the unbelievers,
it's because you're just like them.
But you see, those of us that live a separated and godly life,
we don't fit into this world and that's what the Bible said we wouldn't fit in.
People look at us and think that, hey, we like the way you work,
you do a great job, you're a nice guy, you've always helped me out,
you bought me lunch, you've always been selfless and generous at giving,
but wait a minute, we're not going to invite you over for a party
because we know that you're not going to be fun at the party.
We know that you're a big stick in the mud.
And by the way, this isn't the cool church.
We were driving to Tucson, Brett and I, and we saw a church called the cool church.
This is called uncool Baptist church.
Pastor stick in the mud.
Pastor rain on your parade.
Pastor don't drink, don't smoke, don't chew, and don't go with girls who do.
Pastor, no TV, I don't watch movies, I'm not going to sit down and watch TV with you,
I'm not going to drink with you, I'm not going to take drugs with you,
I'm not going to smoke with you, we're not going to go out and party with you,
I'm not going to go to the rock concert with you, I'm not going to the movies with you,
I am the most boring person, no I'm just kidding.
I know how to have fun without all the sin though.
But let me tell you something, the world doesn't think it's fun unless there's sin involved.
You see, if you try to take the heroin addict to the zoo, it just doesn't get him hot.
It just isn't that cool.
You know, kids today, you try to show them the zoo, you try to show them the ostrich,
you try to show them the elephant, and they don't want to see it,
because they're so used to just going to a theater watching things explode,
watching all the sex and the drugs and the violence and all this crazy stuff
that they can't even enjoy the simple things of life.
They can't enjoy going on a picnic.
They can't enjoy going to the zoo.
They can't enjoy, you know, going swimming.
They can't enjoy playing a game of soccer or basketball.
They have to go and do all this stuff that has to be just like a sensory overload.
You know, they have to sit in a chair that's going to vibrate,
that's going to get hot and cold with the action of the movie,
that's going to throw them around, you know, and slap them.
They can't enjoy the simple things.
I guarantee you that I will have more fun this week than every drunk in the city.
Every drunk and drug addict and whore and whoremonger of ASU,
I will have more fun this week than they will.
I'll be happier.
I'll have a better time.
And I won't touch alcohol.
I won't touch anything, okay, because I don't need that stuff.
But the bottom line is, if you take somebody who's a really solid Christian
and then you take somebody of the world,
they're not going to be doing the same activities.
Let's face it, right?
They're not going to have the same hobbies.
They're not going to have the same entertainment.
And so there's just not a lot of concord, it says in 2 Corinthians 6.
There's not a lot of communion there.
There's just not a lot of fellowship there.
But thank God we'll go to church and be with people that are like us,
okay, that love God like we do.
Where did I have you turn?
Malachi chapter 3, look at verse 16.
It says,
Then they that feared the Lord spake often one to another.
You see that?
Those who fear God just be speaking often one to another.
Not while I talk to my unsaved buddy every day for hours,
we're talking, we're texting, we're emailing,
or whatever, instant messaging, messengering, whatever they do now.
Okay, I'm doing all this stuff with all that,
and then I just go to church.
And then I just go to church and kind of say hi to my acquaintance at church.
No, the people at church should be your close friend.
The guy out in the world should be the acquaintance.
He said,
They that feared the Lord spake often one to another.
He said,
These were the friends, the close friends,
people that love God, that feared the Lord.
Not even just saved, but that feared the Lord.
That loved the Lord, that knowed the Lord.
He said,
And the Lord hearkened and heard it,
and a book of remembrance was written before it for them that feared the Lord,
and that thought upon his name.
And they shall be mine, saith the Lord,
in the day that I make up my jewels,
and I will spare them as a man's spare of his own son and servant.
Then shall ye return and discern,
between the righteous and the wicked,
between him that serveth God,
and him that serveth them not.
Here's another verse, James 4-4.
Ye adulterers and adulteresses,
know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God?
Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.
Look at Judges 14.
Go back in the Old Testament.
Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy,
Joshua, Judges, 7th Book, and 5th.
Judges, chapter number 14.
Here's the story of Samson.
And Samson was a guy where his downfall was having the wrong friends.
He was always hanging around the wrong people.
He was always with the wrong women.
He had a downfall for being around the women of the world,
instead of God's people.
And you know, of course, Delilah,
this other woman from the Philistines that he was with.
But look what it says in Judges chapter 14 about Samson.
It says, But Samson's wife was given to his companion,
and look at this last phrase,
whom he had used as his friend.
Now isn't that an interesting statement in the Bible?
Whom he had used as his friend.
Now that's what a lot of friendship is, unfortunately.
It's just, what can I use you for?
You know?
Oh, I like to be friends with so-and-so because he showed me a good time.
Because he has these video games that I like to play and I can't afford them.
So I go over to so-and-so's house and play those games, you know?
Or I remember I had this one friend who lived in a mansion,
and he had like tennis courts in his backyard,
swimming pools, basketball court, huge mansion, just all the amenities.
He had like a full-blown weight room,
like a whole fitness center in their house, okay?
Just all kinds of cool stuff.
And we used to like to go to spend the night at that guy's house,
just to do all the cool stuff.
I mean, you know, we're just playing basketball, we're going swimming,
we're going night swimming in the heated pool, we're lifting weights,
we're playing hide-and-go-seek in this house,
because it was cool to play hide-and-go-seek in this house,
because this house was huge.
Mansion.
But where's that guy at today?
I don't know, you know what I mean?
For all I know, he could be in jail right now, or in the hospital right now,
or out on the street somewhere.
I don't know where he is.
I don't know who he is.
Because I probably just used him as my friend.
You know, he wasn't really a serious friend of mine.
Do you understand what I'm saying?
But what happens when that person can't do anything for you?
Are you still going to be their friend?
You see, a boy passed away and said,
I'd love to have a friend like that that I felt like I could rely on,
you know, when things go against me, when things go bad.
Somebody that when I fall, remember out in Ecclesiastes we started out?
He said, when you fall, they'll pick you up.
I'd love to have a friend like that.
Go back to Ecclesiastes if you would, check before.
I'd love to have somebody like that, but wait a minute.
The Bible said a man that had friends must show himself friendly.
Do you want to have a friend like that?
It doesn't start with having friends like that.
It starts with being a friend like that.
See, once you realize, hey, wait a minute.
I'm saved, I'm a Christian, I want to live for God,
I don't want to be just like everybody else.
I want to live for God, I want to be a soul winner,
I want to be a serious, godly Christian.
You get to that point where you make that decision,
hey, I'm going to serve God with my life.
Well, then what you do is you seek out other people
that also love God, that are also saved.
That's the purpose of church.
You come to church and you're assembled with other people
that are going the same direction as you.
Then step three is you say, you know what?
Now I'm going to be a friend to these people.
I'm going to see what they need.
I'm going to see what I can do to help them.
I'm going to find somebody who's lonely.
I'm going to find somebody who needs a friend,
who needs somebody to talk to, who needs somebody to lift them up.
I'm going to find somebody who needs help or could use me as a friend,
not that they're going to do something for me,
not that they're going to be making my life more fun and exciting,
but no, I'm going to reach out to them and make their life better.
I'm going to be there for them. I'm going to be a friend to them.
And then you'll have friends when you start reaching out to people
and being their friend, you'll find your friendship reciprocated.
And so we need to get out of this worldly conception of what friends are,
best friends forever.
Oh, man, I haven't seen that person in ten years.
We say it, but are you really their friend?
When you really have a friend, whatever situation that person is,
you'll be there for them.
And that's what God expects. That's what God commands.
That's what God describes as having a true friend.
But in Ecclesiastes 4.9, let's look at it again now with all that in mind.
It says, two are better than one because they have a good reward for their labor.
For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow.
Now let me ask you something.
If you're a Christian and you fall in the sin,
is the unbeliever going to lift you up and get you back in church?
Is the worldly Christian, the NIV reader,
the dead as a doornail Baptist church,
is that person going to lift you up and get you back in the fight?
No.
He says they have a good reward for their labor
for if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow.
But woe to him, watch this, that is alone when he follows.
For he hath not another to help him up.
Again, if two lie together, then they have heat.
But how can one be warm alone?
This is basically an illustration of lying in bed.
Let me tell you a story.
One time, my dad and I were out riding on a dirt bike trip
and we were in the desert in Nevada, northern Nevada.
And it got really, really cold.
It got way colder than we thought it was going to get.
I mean, it got very, very cold.
It went way below zero.
And we were in the back of a truck and we had a camper shell.
It wasn't a full camper, it was just a shell.
And it was very drafty.
It did not seal up at all.
I mean, it was just a camper shell.
You know how they are.
And it did not seal up whatsoever.
Well, we had this little propane heater.
It was like one of these ones where you just screw the top
onto the little can of green propane
and it kind of looked like a little satellite dish
and put out heat.
Well, we had that little heater.
And in spite of that heater,
and instead of being in there under blankets and everything,
our water that was in there with us,
that was in a gallon milk carton, froze solid.
Not even just froze on the outside.
I mean, it froze through solid that night.
It was so cold.
And this is in the camper shell.
So it was just an extreme cold front or whatever.
I don't know all the meteorological terms,
but I guess a cold front came through.
Is that right?
You know, whatever.
Some cold, cold stuff came through.
And it just got really, really cold.
And we were freezing.
And I remember me and my dad literally just had to like
huddle together like this all night
just to like stay alive.
I mean, we were just embraced like this.
And you know, we're not that close to the family.
I'm serious.
Like, you know, some families grow up
and it's like, oh, I love you.
And there's a lot of hugs.
That's why we're my family.
I'm always hugging my kids.
But you know, my parents are not that affectionate with us.
Just to be honest.
We're just kind of like, you know, hi, mom.
How you doing?
It's more like a handshake, you know what I mean?
But man, me and my dad are like.
Because we're trying to stay alive.
I mean, you're freezing.
I mean, it was bad.
It was very, very cold.
Because that, you know, two can get more heat than one person
is what the Bible is saying here.
But wait a minute.
It says, but how can one be warm alone?
But now let's apply this to our Christian life.
God said I would that thou were cold or hot.
You know, he said he wants us to be fervently serving God.
You know, the word fervent comes the word fire.
You know, basically just being zealous and cold or hot.
He said get in or get out.
And so wait a minute.
How can one be warm alone?
He's saying if you get away from the heat of being in the church
where things are happening.
People are getting saved.
People are getting baptized.
People are growing in the Lord.
You get away from that environment, you're going to cool down.
You know, you take the hot burning coal out of the fire
and set it by itself for a while.
Pretty soon it's going to cool off.
And you get out of church and you get away from God's people
and you're just out on your own by yourself.
You're going to cool down.
But when you're in the church, that's where you get stirred up.
That's where you get fired up.
That's where you get heated up.
But how can one be warm alone is what he's saying here.
He says in verse number 12,
and if one prevail against him, two shall withstand him.
And watch this.
A threefold cord is not easily broken.
Now who here knows about like engineering or physics?
You say like I love science.
I know about, isn't your dad a scientist?
Does he have a major in that or something?
Something like that.
He knows a lot about science,
but here's a little bit of science for you.
Let's say you have one cord
and it has a certain amount of weight
that it can withstand before that cord breaks.
Now let's say you have three cords,
then you can play any song on the guitar.
If you have three cords,
then basically it can withstand three times as much weight.
Okay? No. Wrong.
Because the threefold cord,
if you take those three cords and braid them together,
if you braid three cords together,
it is not three times the strength of one cord.
I don't know. Who knows the math?
I don't know, but it's a lot.
Here's the math. A lot.
It's a lot stronger.
Seriously.
I used to build, for a company I used to work for,
I would build speaker clusters
because I've always done electronics and low voltage.
Well, we would go into these gymnasiums
and build speaker clusters
and we would basically use steel cables to hold it up
and the steel cables were braided.
Steel.
Steel braided together.
Because it's much stronger threefold than just one.
And it's not three times as strong.
It's a lot stronger.
Okay?
So that's the exact amount of increased strength.
But you see, the threefold cord is not quickly broken.
It's going to be able to withstand a lot of might.
That's why all ropes, if you go on a sailing ship,
it's always braided.
They're always braided together.
They're not just straight.
They're three woven.
It's not just one thick one.
It's three that are woven together.
And you see the Bible says,
one of you shall chase a thousand.
Two of you shall put ten thousand to flight.
You see the difference there?
Two does ten times as much as one.
Okay, why?
Because two are better than one.
If one is good, two are better.
Three is even better.
And so when you have more people
that are joining together and teaming up,
you can accomplish more.
That's the point of the church.
That's why God didn't just send us out as just solo commandos.
To just go out and do his work by ourselves.
Just go into some area by yourself and just do what's good.
No, he's got us joined together in the church.
So that we can team up and be a three fold corp.
Or however many fold corp.
We can join up and have more strength.
Pick each other up when we fall.
But is that what we think of as church?
Or do we think church is a show that we go see once a week?
There's probably a better show going on at Harkins Theater.
A lot bigger budget than we have.
You know what I mean?
If you just want to go see the show.
Or you can watch some show on TV of a church.
They'll probably have people doing back flips across the stage.
They'll have a rock band and all of us.
Look, we don't come to church to enjoy the show.
You come to church, you pick up the song book and you sing yourself.
You don't just listen to the singing.
You come to church, you don't just listen to the preaching.
You open your Bible, you're reading it for yourself.
You're learning, you're studying.
And then you're joining up with the people around you.
And saying, hey, these are my friends.
Turn to one last place.
Matthew chapter 12, the last place we're going to turn.
These are my friends.
I'm going to be there for them.
They're going to be there for me.
We're going to do something for God.
We're going to yoke up and we're going to work and serve God together.
Hey, Jesus Christ, when he sent out his disciples, he didn't send them one by one.
He sent them two by two.
How are you going to go two by two if you're not in a church?
You've got to have people that you can team up with and get in the yoke with and serve God with.
And it says here in Matthew 12, and this is what I'm going to close with.
In Matthew chapter 12 is when Jesus is teaching at the end of the chapter there, verse 45.
Jesus is teaching and preaching.
And the Bible says in verse 46, while he yet talked to the people,
behold, his mother and his brethren stood without desiring to speak with them.
And then one said unto him, behold, thy mother and thy brethren stand without desiring to speak with thee.
But he answered and said unto him that told him, who is my mother and who are my brethren?
And he stretched forth his hands toward his disciples and said, behold, my mother and my brethren.
For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven,
the same is my brother and sister and mother.
And a lot of times people use this terminology, hey brother Dave, hey brother Segura, hey brother Carl, hey brother this area.
And we use that terminology.
But do we really feel about that person like, hey, that's my brother?
Something about that.
Do we just use it as a title?
Hey, brother Anderson, how you doing?
Or do you say, hey, Pastor Anderson is my brother.
Pastor Anderson is going to be there for me, I'm going to be there for him or anybody in the church.
And say, hey, this is my family, this is my brother and this is my sister.
And it's not that Jesus didn't respect his physical family.
He loved his family too.
He loved his physical brothers and his mother, his sisters, his mother.
And he said, Jesus, I thought Mary was a virgin.
But if she was a virgin when she had Jesus, and then guess what?
She had at least six other children according to the Bible.
At least seven other children actually, I'm sorry.
Because it says, his sisters, are they not all with us?
All implies three or more.
Because you can't say all two of them.
That would be another word, both.
So basically, all the sisters, that's three or more, it names four of his brothers.
These are the half-brothers of Jesus that were the children of Joseph and Mary.
After Mary brought forth her firstborn son and called his name Jesus,
you can't have a firstborn son unless you have a second son, right?
You don't say like, oh hey, are you going to see so-and-so the movie part one?
And there's never been a part two?
But that wouldn't make any sense, you understand what I'm saying?
And so, Jesus Christ here, it's not that he didn't love his family,
but he was trying to show us, hey, your family is your brothers and sisters in Christ.
And you ought to love those people like they're your brother.
You ought to love them like they're your sister.
And not say, well, you know, yeah, they go to my church or whatever.
No, that's my brother, that's my sister, that's my mother, that's people that I love.
Paul told Timothy, he said, rebuke not an elder, but entreat him as a father,
and the younger men as brethren, the elder women as mothers,
the youngers as sisters with all purity.
So we need to stop and think, do I really love God's people like I should?
Or do I just love the world more than I put in my time at church?
No, God said, love the brotherhood.
Love the brotherhood.
Love your brothers and sisters in Christ.
Love one another.
Speak often one to another.
Be a friend to one another.
That's your real friends anyway, because I'll tell you something,
you're going to find out one day, if you're a friend of the world,
you'll find out one day what their friendship means, if you haven't already.
You will find out.
You will find out like the prodigal son found out when he was in the pig pen,
feeding the pigs, and no man gave unto him,
when just right before that he had all the friends, he had all his partying,
he had the women, he had the friends, and then as soon as he was down on his luck,
as soon as he had no money, as soon as his best job he could get was feeding pigs,
no man gave unto him. Nobody was there to help him.
And you'll find out one day what the friendship of the world means,
because I'll tell you what it means right now, nothing.
So you either believe me or you can learn it the hard way.
But I'll tell you something, there's a friend that's sticking closer than a brother,
and it's your friend at church.
It's your friend that is maybe outside this church,
but that's a saved, born-again Christian who loves God.
That's your real friend.
And then of course, what a friend we have in Jesus.
He's obviously our greatest friend, our best friend, that's always going to be there.
But I'm going to tell you something.
There's going to be a time when you're going to want to have friends.
Maybe today it's not that important to you.
Maybe today it's just you just want somebody to go hiking with,
or somebody to go swimming with, or somebody to go fool around with.
But wait a minute, one day you'll want to have a real friend.
One day you're going to go through bad stuff and you're going to wish that you had a friend.
One day everybody's going to turn on you,
and people who you thought were your buddies are going to turn on you,
turn their back on you, criticize you, rail on you, hate you, malign you.
And I've been there, let me tell you.
I've had people turn on me many times throughout the years,
all through the years, people that I've helped,
people that I've been a friend to.
I've helped them, I've stood by them, I've done stuff for them.
But you know what? They turned on you.
But who have been the people who stood with me?
It was always the people that I knew who loved God the most,
won the most souls, read the most Bible.
Those people always stood with me.
Why? It's not because of me, it's because they had love.
Because people who know God, God is love.
And how you can have the fruit of the Spirit, which is love,
if you don't even have the Spirit or if you're quenching the Spirit or grieving the Spirit.
But those who are filled with the Spirit are the most loving people that you'll meet.
Now does it mean that they love everybody?
The Bible says, let love be without dissimulation.
What does dissimulation mean? What's a simulator?
Is it real? No.
He said, let love be without dissimulation.
Abhor that which is evil.
Clean to that which is good.
You can't love the flowers if you don't hate the wheat.
You can't love...
I just love everybody.
I love Hitler, Stalin, I love pedophiles, mass murderers, serial killers.
I just love everybody.
You don't love anybody. You don't even know what love is.
If God is love, and yet God hates,
because the Bible says the wicked and him that loveth violence is so hated.
The Bible said God hates the workers of iniquity who are bloody and deceitful men.
If God hates and God is love, how are you going to think that you're going to love,
and yet you have no hate at all?
You just only love, love, love.
That sounds great, right?
Oh, just love, love, love, love, love, love, love.
But you know what? It's a lie.
It's fake. It's simulated.
Nobody loves everybody.
And usually the people who claim to love everybody, it's just because they don't know what love is.
So they think, oh, I must love everybody.
Because they don't love anybody because they don't know what love is.
How can you love my child if you don't hate the person that would harm my child,
that would rape or murder a child?
And then you say, I love the child?
But I love the person who's killing it and raping it.
That doesn't even make sense. It's stupid.
And you talk to people today and they've been so brainwashed by the media.
They've been so brainwashed by Barney and Friends.
They've been so brainwashed by Sesame Street.
They've been so brainwashed by all this garbage on TV that just teaches them,
oh, don't say hate. Now murder is okay.
It's okay to kill babies.
It's okay to murder a baby, but just don't hate anybody.
Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh.
It's okay to go to another country and kill a bunch of innocent people for nothing to make somebody rich.
But oh, oh, oh, you hate somebody?
So they think murder's fine, but don't hate.
Murder's fine, but don't judge.
Stealing's fine. It's okay to steal and extort money, but don't judge. Don't hate.
You see, that's why I'm not going to let the world tell me anything.
I'm going to let this book tell me everything.
I'm not going to let the world, who doesn't even know,
profess themselves to be wise and became fools.
I'm not going to go to ASU Devil State University where the mascot is the devil,
and where the guy who's running the show is the devil,
where the dean of students is the devil,
and where the guy who's writing the curriculum is the devil.
It's run by Satan, at least unlike all the other universities in America.
They admit it down there. They just put a picture of the devil in a building
and tell you it's Devil State where they teach you that there's no God,
where they teach you that you evolved from an animal,
where they teach you that you are an animal, that you're a species called Homo Sapien.
Bless God, I'm not an animal. I'm a child of God.
I'm made in the image of God.
And you wonder why people act like animals today?
And they act like an animal because they've been taught that they're an animal,
and they have the love of an animal.
I mean, they have the level of love of an animal.
They'll come lick your hand.
They'll be like Lassie and pull you out of the river when you fall in.
But you know what? They don't have the love that a human being has
that's born of God, that knows God, that has true love.
They have the love that a cow has, or a monkey has, or an ape has.
I don't want to be loved by an ape. I want to be loved by a human being,
and I want to be loved by God.
And so get love from the biter.
Get your love right, and don't let the world tell you what love is.
They'll tell you it's the bedroom.
They'll tell you it's we love everybody.
You know, while they're shooting you, they love you.
While they're killing your child, they love you.
While they're taking your child from you and putting it in somebody else's home,
they do it because they love you.
Alone. It's a lot.
And we need to realize that love comes from God and God alone.
Let's bow our heads now in the word of prayer.