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Man, Proverbs chapter number 27, we're in this kind of new section of the book of Proverbs that started back in chapter 25, the Proverbs that the men of Hezekiah copied out, the Proverbs of Solomon. And so it's a little bit of a different style here over the last few chapters where even though these are individual Proverbs like we've had ever since chapter 10, they're a little bit more connected at least than chapters 10 through 24. Those, most of the time, were really just one-off individual Proverbs. This chapter has a little bit more of a common thread. There's a little bit more of a connection between these various Proverbs. Let's start at the beginning there with that famous verse in verse number one. Boast not thyself of tomorrow, for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth. And of course, we have a New Testament passage very similar to this. If you flip over, if you would, to James chapter number four, keep your finger there in Proverbs. Let's go to James. And we'll look at the famous passage in James about not boasting of tomorrow. We don't know what is going to happen tomorrow, and our life is so short, and some people's lives are shorter than others, and we don't know when the end is gonna come for any of us. And the Bible says in James chapter number four verse 13, go to now ye that say today or tomorrow, we will go into such a city and continue there a year and buy and sell and get gain, whereas you know not what shall be on the morrow. And what did it say back in Proverbs? It said, boast not thyself of tomorrow, for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth. So it's basically saying the same thing. And it says, you don't know what's gonna be on the morrow. And it says, for what is your life? It is even a vapor that appear for a little time and then vanish to the way for that you ought to say, if the Lord will, we shall live and do this or that. But now you rejoice in your boastings. Notice the word boasting. That's the same word that we had back in Proverbs 27. Boast not thyself of tomorrow, for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth. Now you rejoice in your boastings. All such rejoicing is evil. Therefore to him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not, to him it is sin. So here's what the Bible is saying, that there are people out there, they talk a really big talk about what they're going to do in the future. And this is why it says, boast not thyself of tomorrow, because boasting is what? Bragging or talking big about yourself, praising yourself. That's what we would call boasting or bragging. And he says, don't boast of tomorrow. Don't say, oh man, I'm gonna do this next year. And this year is gonna be like this. Don't talk a big talk about what you're going to do in the future, because you don't really know if you're even gonna see tomorrow, let alone if you're gonna be able to do those things that you're boasting about. But then he follows it up with this statement that to him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not, to him it is sin. Now usually that verse is something that we would just talk about in isolation. We just kind of quote that. Hey, to him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not, to him it is sin. And it works as a one-off verse. But it says, therefore, to him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not, to him it is sin. So whenever there's a therefore, you gotta see what it's there for, okay? Because it's connecting to what we just saw. And so what the Bible is basically saying is that you don't know what's gonna happen tomorrow. Therefore, to him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not, to him it is sin. Here's what he's saying. The right things that you know need to be done, do them now. Don't have this attitude that says, well, eventually I'm gonna go soul winning. Eventually, you know, one of these days, I'm gonna really get into Bible reading. You know, I'll get back in church one of these days. And if there's some good that you know you should be doing, then if you don't do it, it's a sin not to do the good that you know to do. And the way that fits the context is because people often think, well, I'll do it later. I'm gonna do it tomorrow. Or I've heard a lot of people say this, you know, right now, I'm just really focusing on my finances because I've gotta turn the corner financially and then once I get these ducks in a row, then I'm gonna get back in church, then I'm gonna get serious about serving God. And what are they doing? They're boasting of tomorrow. I'm gonna fix my finances and then I'm gonna serve God. All such rejoicing is evil. To him that knoweth to do good and doeth not, to him it is sin. Don't tell me what you're gonna do down the road. What we ought to be doing is just doing the will of God today, now. Because you don't know if you're gonna turn the corner financially. I mean, there have been many times in my life when I thought that I was gonna turn that financial corner. It turns out it was a round room that I was in. There was no corner. And it was just a cycle of financial despair, okay? Because how many times have you gotten an unexpected bill or some expense that your kid gets hurt or they need something at the dentist or the car breaks down and the part is $2,000? I mean, stuff like this happens constantly in our lives. You don't know what is gonna be on tomorrow. And so don't wait until your life is all lined up the way that you think it's gonna be lined up six months or a year from now to start serving God. No, you need to start serving God now, even while your finances are messed up, even while your relationships are messed up, even while your health is messed up. Serve God now, because you know what? This might be the only time that you've even got, because you don't know if you're even gonna have a tomorrow or if you have tomorrow, what is that tomorrow gonna be like? You don't know. And our lives are short. Our life is like a vapor that appeared for a little time and then managed to the way. So next thing you know, when we start putting off the service of God, when we start putting off the work of God, next thing you know, life has gone by and we're old and gray and it's over. So you've got to take advantage of the opportunities that you're given on a daily basis for serving God. Let's go back to Proverbs chapter 27. So it says in verse one, boast not thyself of tomorrow, for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth. Verse number two, let another man praise thee and not thine own mouth, a stranger and not thine own lips. And you can see how this would tie in with what we just heard, because we're talking about boasting of tomorrow, talking a big talk about what you're going to do down the road. By the way, it always cracked me up when I was growing up in Baptist churches and we'd have missionaries come in and they would talk such a huge talk about all the work they're going to do for God over on the mission field. But then some of them didn't even do any evangelizing here in the United States. And so you'd try to get them out soul winning. You couldn't even get them to go out soul winning in America. You couldn't get them to go out and take part in the church's outreach and the church's evangelism, but man, they're going to go to Asia and they're going to turn it upside down and they're not even going to plant a church. They're planting churches. It's like, hey, why don't you plant one? And then we'll talk. But man, they're going to plant all these churches and do all these works. But then you can't get them out soul winning in America. This guy came one time and he talked this huge talk about how he's going to go to Utah and he's going to win the Mormons to Christ. And he had this big plan, this big complicated thing. It was all about winning Mormons to Christ. I walked up to the guy after the service and I said, have you ever, and I wasn't trying to be a smart aleck at all. I actually wanted to talk to the guy because I found Mormons to be like impossible to reach with the gospel in my own personal experience. So I was trying to get some tips from this guy because I was like, this guy must have cracked the code because he's traveling around America raising money to go and he's going to win the Mormons to Christ. He's going to Utah. And so I thought maybe he cracked the code. So I was trying to get the tips. So I walked up to the guy and said, have you ever won a Mormon to Christ? And he said, no. But see, that's the kind of boasting of the morrow where you talk this huge talk about what you're going to do but you don't really know if you're going to do any of that. You don't know if any of that's going to work out. And I have a suspicion that this guy found the Mormons to be a little tougher of a nut to crack than what he expected because the Mormons are just the absolute worst mission field on this planet or any other planet, including Kolob, all right? No, I'm just kidding. No, there's only one planet with people on it. But the Mormons, they think they've got other people on other planets, but that's another sermon that shall be preached at another time. But anyway, it's easy to talk about all the things you're going to do in the future and there are two problems with boasting of the morrow. Number one, the problem is you don't know what a day is going to bring forth. Problem number two is that all boasting is wrong, period. Boasting about yesterday or tomorrow is wrong because boasting is wrong. Let another man praise thee, not thine own mouth. Strangers, not thine own lips. This is why I don't like about politics. It makes me sick to hear a politician tell me how great they are. I don't want to hear anyone tell me how great they are and I don't want to tell people what I'm like either because people will ask me about myself. I just say, well, you're going to have to ask someone else what they think about me because I can't be the judge of my own work or of my own character or something like that because that would be wrong first of all, I don't want to just self-deprecate and I don't want to praise myself because the Bible says not to so I'll just leave that to other people to decide. You know, this is what always made me uncomfortable about like job interviews. Tell me what your greatest strengths are and I'm just like, you know, modesty forbids here. I don't want to talk about my strengths. Why? Because that's not humility to praise yourself. Now, a lot of people would say, well, it's wrong to praise yourself but in a job interview, it's appropriate. That's what I don't like about job interviews because I don't, you know, it makes me uncomfortable. And you know what? If I'm asked to say something positive about myself that'd make me uncomfortable because the Bible says let another man praise you not through no mouth. And let me tell you something, when I hear other people praising themselves I get uncomfortable for them. And you ever get around somebody and they just start praising themselves and you're just like, ah, like you cringe because it's just so awkward when people are praising themselves. And so we need to make sure that this verse gets drilled into our brains. Let another man praise thee not that own mouth, a stranger not that own lips. I'm not telling you, you know, not to tell them your strengths at the job interview. I'm just telling you that if you do tell them your strengths at the job interview, it should kind of go against the grain a little bit when you do that because you're not in just the habit of going around telling everybody how wonderful you are. But politicians, man, that's all they do is praise themselves. And in fact, when our country was first founded, if you read about the history of some of those early political races, candidates were uncomfortable about even announcing that they were running. You know, they would be nominated by other people and it was considered dishonorable to campaign for yourself because it seems like you're praising yourself. It seems like you're boasting, going around and telling everybody how great you are and how you're the best man for the job and so forth. Don't be that type of person. We as Christians need to be humble, not braggarts, not boastful. And you know, we quote this verse so much in our family. Anytime, because little children don't, they don't know better because they haven't been taught. And so a three-year-old, a four-year-old, a five-year-old, little kids will sometimes say like, oh, I'm really good at X, Y, and Z. And then we teach our kids like, hey, let another man praise thee, not thine own mouth. A stranger, not thine own lips. And then, you know, apparently some parents did not teach that to their kids. And so they just go around talking about how good they are at this, that, and the other. And it's prideful and wrong. Bible says in verse three, a stone is heavy and the sand weighty, but a fool's wrath is heavier than them both. Wrath is cruel and anger is outrageous, but who is able to stand before envy? And so the Bible is talking about a fool's wrath, a fool's anger. You know, any idiot can lose their temper, blow their top, get enraged, but it takes character and self-control to keep yourself from losing it, right? And I think we've all lost our temper before. You know, I can definitely think of some examples of times that I just absolutely blew my top and then regretted it afterward and wish that I would have controlled myself and not lost my temper like that, right? We've all been there, but the wise man should seek to keep his anger under control and to put off anger, not to let the sun go down on his wrath. The fool just lets his anger go unchecked. Do not go through life as an angry person. It's not profitable. It's not helpful. Obviously there's a righteous anger. Jesus got angry. Other prophets are filled with the Spirit of God in the scripture and they got angry, but the person who is angry from day to day is a foolish person. And the Bible says that we should give place under wrath and let not the sun go down upon our wrath. And we need to be slow to wrath, the Bible says, slow to anger. And so, but even worse than that, even worse than wrath, the Bible says, is envy, right? You know, wrath is cruel and anger is outrageous, but who's able to stand before envy? And again, these verses are kind of thematically linked to one another. So let's look at the next couple of verses and then come back to that. It says, open rebuke is better than secret love. Faithful are the wounds of a friend, but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful. Now, when you read verses like that, about how open rebuke is better than secret love and faithful are the wounds of a friend, but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful. You know, we're talking about Judas Iscariot types, right? Isn't that what automatically pops around when you think of the kisses of an enemy are deceitful? Because Judas betrayed Jesus with a kiss, which is a sign of affection, a sign of love. It's something endearing where he comes to him and kisses, because he said to the people that he betrayed Jesus to, to the soldiers, you know, it's the one that I kiss, that's him. You know, he didn't say it's the guy with the long hair. Okay, because Jesus didn't have long hair. Okay, but you know, the depictions of Jesus always show him with long hair, right? But Jesus actually just looked like everyone else. He just looked like an ordinary person. He did not stand out in some dramatic way to where Judas could have just said, well, it's that guy that's a foot taller than everybody else or something, you know, there was no obvious identifier about him. And so Judas went and kissed Jesus in order to identify him, but he could have chosen some other way. He could have just, you know, I don't know, extended him the right hand of fellowship, right? Reached out to him or handed him something or pointed at him or just described him in some way. But obviously the Bible records this as a fulfillment of prophecy that Judas would betray Jesus with a kiss, because there's all this prophecy about the Messiah being betrayed by his friend, by the one that he loved and so forth. And so this betrayal with a kiss makes you think of Judas and what was Judas? Judas is someone who's pretending to believe in Jesus, but actually doesn't. He's pretending to love Jesus and he doesn't. Why was he doing that? Why was he even following Jesus if he didn't believe in him? Why is he being a disciple? Well, the Bible tells us in the Gospel of John that he had the bag and that he was a thief, that he was actually stealing from the communal funds of the group. So that could have been part of the motivation is that the disciples and Jesus are receiving a lot of donations coming in and Judas is the treasurer and he was stealing. So that could be one motive of get close to Jesus, maybe get some of the fame, some of the popularity, Jesus is really important, crowds of people are coming to hear him and I'm one of the 12 disciples, so I'm in this top position, I have access to money and of course he's abusing that access. So those are some of the motives you could think of, but there are gonna be people like this in 2023 that pretend to be our friends and they're not really our friends. And they will flatter us and compliment us and say nice things to us, but then behind our back, they're conniving, they're plotting against us, maybe they're stealing, maybe they're lying, whatever they're using us for. And I'm not even just saying this as a preacher, but just even in your life, even in your personal life, you're gonna have people that will sometimes attach themselves to you for bad motives and pretend to be your friend and use and abuse you. But especially if you're in any kind of position of authority, you're gonna have these kind of people that are called sycophants, okay? And hopefully you know that word, but if you don't, then be a Christian for a while and you're gonna see a lot of sycophants and you'll figure out what this word means. If you're ever a pastor, you'll for sure know what this word means, but sycophants are people who flatter you and they try to get close to you, but they have an ulterior motive for doing so and these people will just tell you how wonderful you are and treat you really well, give you a lot of gifts, but then these people will turn around and become vicious enemies because they're there for all the wrong reasons. The right reason to come to Faithful Word Baptist Church is because you love the Lord. And so you wanna serve the Lord, you wanna study God's word and you wanna be a doer of the word and you wanna fellowship with God's people. You know, ultimately the reason to be here is because you love Jesus Christ, okay? But there are some people who will make it all about the pastor and they'll even, and then it's funny when these people then turn around and become these backstabbing enemies, they'll say things like, I've done so much for you, Pastor Anderson and I gave up everything for you, Pastor Anderson. I'm just like, excuse me? What? Who are you? What are you talking about? Like, I gave up everything for you. It's like, who asked you to do that? No one. Because this is not Stephen Anderson Baptist Church, okay? This is, it's not about me. Anyone who comes and attends church here, okay? Praise the Lord if you're attending here, but you're not doing me a personal favor by attending here. Whether you attend or don't attend, it doesn't change anything for me as a person. Other than if you and I are friends and we have some fellowship together, well then great. But that's kind of a two-way street, right? Like if you and I have brotherly fellowship together, then hopefully we're both kind of blessed by that, right? Like hopefully I'm blessing you and you're blessing me because that's how friendships work. They're kind of a two-way street, right? But let's say you show up and you listen to the preaching. You know what? Christ is pleased with you, right? You're serving Christ, but you're not serving me. Nobody comes to this church and serves me. In fact, I'm called a minister. What's a minister? Minister means servant. I'm the one that's doing the serving. You know, I'm not here to be served, I'm here to serve. So people don't come to Faithful Word Baptist Church in order to serve the pastor. They're coming to serve God. They're coming to serve Jesus Christ and I'm here to serve God, I'm here to serve Christ and I'm here to serve you. So I'm here to try to teach you and lead you and bless you in some way. But if you put money in the offering plate, that is not doing anything for me. I mean, sometimes it boggles my mind how people think. Like do you guys think that the offering plate just somehow just ends up in my pocket or something? Because guess what? When the offering is taken, several guys take it into the back room here, they count it, they write it down in a book and it goes to a bank account, that's a church bank account, that's not my money. That is the church's money. I receive a paycheck from the church just like you receive a paycheck from your job. And whether you come to church or not, I get paid the same. Whether you like the sermon or not, I get paid the same. Whether you give or don't give, whether you tithe or don't tithe, I get paid the same, okay? If 100 people show up or if 300 people show up, I get paid the same. And you know what? Honestly, I would rather preach to 100 people who love Christ and preach with integrity than to preach to 1000 people and the church is filled with bozos. I love our church. And of course our church has on Sunday mornings over 300 people, evening services, what? Tonight we probably have a little over 200 people here or something like that. Amen, praise the Lord. But you know what? If the church gets bigger, if the church gets smaller, you know what? Whatever, like that's, whatever God decides to do, I'm gonna do my job, you guys are gonna do your part in the ministry. But at the end of the day, nobody's, I hope nobody's here to serve me. You know, it's not about me. I'm not getting any kind of a benefit when you go out and win someone to Christ, it's benefiting Christ, it's benefiting the kingdom of God, right? And so that's what it's all about. But you get these weirdos who just, I've done so much for you and it's, well, then you know, I'm sorry to hear that because you should have been doing stuff for Christ and leaving me out of it. And look, people who do things for me personally, I appreciate that when somebody actually does something for me personally, you know, somebody gives me a box of cereal or something. Hey, I appreciate that. I like that, I enjoy that, right? Just like you appreciate it when someone does something for you. But you know what? If somebody gives me a lifetime supply of Cinnamon Toast Crunch, but then turns around and slanders me, lies about me and hates me, then you know, it kind of gives a bitter taste in my mouth, if you can imagine that, with all that Cinnamon Toast Crunch, it could still leave a bitter taste in your mouth. I mean, think about it. Like how much Cinnamon Toast Crunch could make up for the fact that somebody lied about me and slandered me? Cinnamon Toast Crunch isn't gonna fix that. Not even Peanut Butter Love Crunch is gonna fix that. And Peanut Butter Love Crunch is better than Cinnamon Toast Crunch. Who knows what I'm talking about? I know you do. Peanut Butter Love Crunch, because I saw you guys had a bag of it one time. I love that stuff. I mean, no. And so, you know, I'd rather have open rebuke than someone pulling a Judas and having these deceitful kisses of the enemy. You know, it's better the devil you know than the devil you don't know. I'd rather have somebody just say to me, Pastor Anderson, I don't like you, and you're stupid, and you're ugly, and you're an idiot, and you're just trash. I'd rather have that than somebody flatter me. And look, some of these bozo pastors who attach themselves to us temporarily, and it's funny, I go through my text messages that they sent me, and it's all positive. Hey, great sermon, brother. Keep it up, brother. Great work, brother. And then all these people coming to me talking about how after the services of their church, they just get together in a group, and they just talk trash about Pastor Anderson. They're making fun of me. They're saying all these bad things about me. But then, you know, I'm looking at my text, and it's all positive, and I'm like, what's the deal here? What's going on? It's because these people don't have any integrity, because these people are phonies when they are gonna talk bad about you behind your back, and it's all flattery and positivity to your face. You know, that kind of a person is a rotten person that you've gotta watch out for. And so faithful are the wounds of a friend. You know, you'd rather have someone who actually loves you hurt you for your own good, right? Hurt you for your own good, than the person who's giving gifts and flattering you, and secretly, they're conniving and plotting against you. Now obviously, you know, there are nice people who give gifts and give you a compliment, but then there are evil sycophants who when they give you that gift, it's not sincere. You know, and don't get me wrong, I believe that every box of Cinnamon Toast Crunch that I've ever received has been sincere, okay? There's no example in my mind of any sycophant who ever gave me Cinnamon Toast Crunch. I'm just using that as a generic example. But the point is though, that these people that are nice to your face and stabbing you in the back are worse than people who would just openly tell you to your face what the problem that they have with you. Because open rebuke is better than secret love. Faithful are the wounds of a friend, but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful. Bible says in verse seven, the full soul loathes in honeycomb, but to the hungry soul, every bitter thing is sweet. And you know, isn't that so true that as we go through life, sometimes we can get spoiled, can't we? And the full soul loatheth in honeycomb to the point where even if you were presented with your favorite food, if you've already eaten, it's not appealing to you, right? Everything is good when you're starving. I mean, if you go a couple of days without eating, you will literally start to crave the foods that you hate. Because I've been there before. I've been so hungry before that I started to think about stuff that I don't like and just think like, I would eat that right now and I would relish it. Who's ever been that hungry before? Where you actually would fantasize about foods that you hate, okay? And so we've got to make sure that as we go through life, we don't get greedy and go overboard and overindulge because then what happens is we won't be able to enjoy anything. This is why people that are drug addicts, they can't enjoy life because they've already just flooded their brain with so much dopamine and so many feel good hormones and the reward center of their brain is just lit up like a Christmas tree all the time and it gets to where they loathe everything. The full soul loatheth in honeycomb. But to the hungry soul, every bitter thing is sweet. Therefore, if we want to be happy in life, we should go through life a little bit hungry all the time. Because if you go through life a little bit hungry all the time, then you're always enjoying your food. And I even mean this, even literally. Even literally, it's good to go through life a little bit hungry. You know, kids, eat your breakfast. But you know, as an adult though, you know, sometimes you skip breakfast as an adult, right? And you kind of just let that hunger build. And by the time lunch rolls around, you're starving and no matter what you eat, it's gonna be good because you're just really hungry. And that's a good way to live, just to go through life a little bit hungry all the time. But not just with physical food. I mean, that's just one example. But like, what about just other areas of life? You want to stay hungry, okay? And not overindulge in anything to the point where you've overdone it. You know, you think about King Solomon, right? I mean, here's a guy who can have whatever he wants. He's incredibly rich. He's got 300 wives and 700 concubines. I always mix that up. And he's, who cares at that point, right? I mean, does it really matter? Does it really make a difference? He's got a lot of wives and a lot of concubines. I mean, this guy just has access, exclusive access to more women than, you know, could ever fill his time. I mean, he's got a lifetime supply of these women, okay? He's got all the food, the drink, the, I mean, he's got apes and peacocks coming in. He's got a petting zoo. He's got it all. He's got the animals. He's got the precious metals. He's got the pools of water, the men singers, the women singers. He's powerful, he's respected, he's wise. He had everything, but at the end of it, in Ecclesiastes chapter two, he says that he hated life. Said, therefore, I hated life. And you say, how in the world could you hate life if you have all that? Because the full soul loathes the honeycomb, and he was full in every possible way. He had overindulged with women. He's overindulging in luxury, food, whatever. And what goes up must come down. And so if you're just constantly rewarding yourself and just constantly feeling good, constantly flooding the reward center with endorphins and all the dopamine, I'm telling you, you'll be miserable. And I think that's part of the reason why this generation that we're living in, the young people of our generation are some of the most depressed young people in the history of America. Wouldn't you think the most depressed children would have been the generation where they had to work in a factory six days a week or something, and then they go to Sunday school at church because that's where they learn how to read and write? That's where Sunday school originally came from. It wasn't just like another morning church service. It was actually school. It's called Sunday school because it was kids coming to church to learn how to read and write because they're working in a factory during the week, the Industrial Revolution. So obviously you'd look at that and say, man, that's poor kid. He's a kid and he's working in a sweatshop. But hold on a minute. I think that in many ways, kids today are often more depressed than that kid because they get everything that they want and they overindulge in video games. They overindulge in entertainment in general. They overindulge in food and drink and comfort and luxury. And your brain is seeking for equilibrium or homeostasis. And so if you're just constantly wanting to be up, up, up, your brain is gonna be like, no, let's go down. And if you take it way up, your body's gonna bring you way down. And this is why people, when they take drugs, they get high, right? But what happens after they get high? They have to get low because to every action, there's an equal and opposite reaction. And so for every high, there's a low associated with it. And people, when they first take drugs, they take drugs and it makes them feel good. Oh, it feels incredible. It's the greatest feeling ever. Okay, but pretty soon it gets to the point where they have to take drugs just to feel normal. And when they're not taking drugs, they feel horrible. So then they have to find a stronger drug. And then that drug takes them even higher. And then their body takes them even lower. And then they need the drugs even more. And then next thing you know, they're a toothless hooker or whatever they are. If they're a female, a toothless hooker, strung out on drugs, a crack whore, or some dude that's just living in the streets. Dirty, miserable. Just going from high to low to high to low. But the highs aren't even high anymore. The highs are just kind of just, meh, just maintenance. I mean, think about it. If you took your absolute very favorite food and just started eating it every single day, it's not gonna be as good as it was the first week. The second week, the third week, the fourth week. You gotta do that stuff in moderation. Why? Because the full soul loathes the honeycomb. If you get filled up on whatever it is that you like, you're gonna loathe even the sweet things. Whereas to the hungry soul, every bitter thing is sweet. And so I wanna go through life where everything's sweet. So I gotta stay a little bit hungry, okay? So don't do drugs, kids, because it isn't worth it. Like, you're gonna, look, I've never taken drugs, but I'm sure that taking drugs feels good the first time. I'm not gonna ask for a raise of hands of all the former druggies here tonight. No, I'm just kidding. But I guarantee you that there must be some enjoyment there or people wouldn't be doing it. They wouldn't be spending a bunch of money. They wouldn't be involved in that. But you know what, that's what the Bible calls the pleasures of sin for a season. And it is not worth it. And literally, from what I've read about heroin addicts, it's literally a season. Like people that I've read, they said, hey, the first three months on heroin was amazing. But then after that, it was just a living hell for five years, 10 years, 15 years or whatever. And many of these people, are they ever gonna enjoy life again? Hopefully they can eventually get off that stuff and repair their brain by living a normal life for a while. But man, you could do irreparable damage to your brain. You could ruin your whole life, ruin your whole outlook. It's not worth it to enjoy that. But here's the thing, it's not just drugs. It's everything in life that you take to excess, that you go overboard on just joy, fun. And you kids, you wonder why your parents don't just give you everything that you want. And I sure hope that your parents don't give kids whatever they want. Why don't we just give you unlimited candy, unlimited screen time, unlimited play time, unlimited fun? Look, because we don't want you to grow up and be a depressed, miserable person who hates life because the full soul loads a honeycomb. We gotta keep you a little hungry. Whatever fun thing, we wanna take it away from you when you still want a little more. Keep you a little bit hungry so that you'll enjoy it the next time so that you don't get burned out. Your parents are actually trying to teach you to live a balanced and moderate life where ice cream is a treat. Because if you have ice cream for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, eventually the ice cream will start tasting nasty and you won't even enjoy ice cream anymore. And then you'll move on to the next thing and the next thing and you'll ruin everything. And human beings are just by nature just greedy. It's just part of our sinful nature to be greedy. We find something good and what do we do? We just start overdoing it, start overindulging. And I can think of times when I've been guilty of the same thing. We find something that we like and then we keep doing it until we ruin it because we're greedy. Okay, so don't be greedy. Enjoy fun and treats in moderation and don't let them ruin your life. So the Bible says in verse eight, as a bird that wandereth from her nest, so is a man that wandereth from his place. Ointment and perfume rejoice the heart, so does the sweetness of a man's friend by hearty counsel. Thine own friend and thy father's friend forsake not, neither go into thy brother's house in the day of thy calamity, for better is a neighbor that is near than a brother far off. So we have some verses here about friendship. And if we jump down a little bit to verse 17, there's another verse about friendship. It says, iron sharpeneth iron, so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend. And then look at verse 19, it says, as in water, face answer at the face, so the heart of man to man. So let's kind of put some of these thoughts together here. What's the Bible saying about friendship? In verse 19, the Bible says, ointment and perfume rejoice the heart, so does the sweetness of a man's friend by hearty counsel. You know, it's a sweet thing, it's an enjoyable thing when you can get together with your friend. And what does a hearty counsel mean? Well, hearty means from the heart. And counsel means that you're basically talking about something that matters. Because if I got together and just talked about the weather and I said, you wouldn't call that counsel, would you? But if I got together and talked to my friend about some issue that actually is really near and dear to my heart, and I really opened my heart to my friend, and we talked about something that's important, and took counsel together, then that, the Bible says, is a sweet thing, it's like a spiritual ointment or a spiritual perfume, right, in verse nine there. Ointment and perfume rejoice the heart, the sweetness of a man's friend by hearty counsel, right? So that's one of the sweet things in life. It's one of the joys in life, friendship. Isn't it good when you have a friend and you can really relate to them and talk to them and speak to them from your heart? And then it says in verse 10, thine own friend and thy father's friend forsake not. So that type of friendship should also have loyalty attached to it, which again, goes back to what we said a few verses earlier about how open rebuke and the kisses of an enemy and so forth. So when this goes bad, it's horrible. But when it goes right, when you actually have a real true friend who loves you, who is not gonna forsake you, who's loyal to you, and you can have that hearty counsel with them, you know, this is one of the most beautiful things that we have in life, is friendship. Now, one thing I would like to point out is that we just said that the full soul loathes an honeycomb, so even the sweet friendship can be overdone, can't it? So let's say I have this excellent friend and we take sweet counsel together, it could still be overdone, meaning that if I spend too much time with that person, then I might get sick of that person and they might get sick of me. So even this kind of beautiful friendship should be enjoyed in moderation. Now, look, hopefully your marriage is a beautiful friendship. But again, it needs to be enjoyed in moderation. Because if my wife and I were to spend just way too much time together, then we could just get totally burned out on one another's company. And you say, oh, well, you know, that would never happen to me and, you know. But here's the thing though, it does though. If you're just together, day in, day out, all the time, it's gonna get old. And so even that wonderful sweet friendship or that wonderful sweet marriage should be enjoyed in moderation and not overdone, just like you wouldn't overdo sweets in real life as far as food, literal food. But then as we move on here, it says in verse number 17, iron sharpeneth iron, so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend, right? So friends hopefully are also helping each other grow, helping each other be a better person, motivating each other, maybe keeping each other balanced, keeping each other in check. And this kind of connects to the part where the Bible said that faithful are the wounds of a friend. Because, you know, in order to keep each other sharp, sometimes we might have to correct each other or be blunt about something that's unpleasant. Iron sharpeneth iron, so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend. And then verse 19, the other verse about friendship, it says, as in water, face answer at the face, so the heart of man to man. Now, what does that mean? As in water, face answer at the face. Well, what this is saying is that when you look into the water, because back when the Bible is written, you don't just have mirrors in the bathroom of your house and, you know, just mirrors everywhere in public and mirror. I mean, a mirror would have been a rare item, right? Because, and it wouldn't have been like the mirrors that we, it wouldn't have been of the quality that we have today. It'd be more like just something shiny that you look at, right? So probably people saw their reflection in water, you know, as maybe the clearest picture that they're gonna get. Maybe a shiny piece of metal or, you know, looking into the water or something. They probably didn't have these super high-tech mirrors like we have today that just look exactly like you, crystal clear with no change. So when the Bible says as in water, you know, face answer at the face, he's saying, you know, when you look in the water, you see a reflection of yourself, right? Face answering face. And the Bible says that so is the heart of man to man. So the heart of man to man. What does that mean? What this means is that part of what appeals to us about friendship is that we see ourselves in other people. So our friends are kind of like a reflection of ourself. And this is why we typically like to have friends with whom we have something in common. Because we look at our friend and the image that's coming back at us, we can't relate. You know, we get around someone and we have nothing in common, we can't really relate to that person. You know, we're probably not gonna choose that person as our friend. You know, if you're a young man and you go out on a date with a young lady and you don't have a lot in common, you don't really have any common connection, you're probably not going on another date. Because we as human beings, we long to share life with other people and to share an intimate connection with other people. We wanna have hearty counsel with our friend. We want to have a friend whom we can look at and basically see a reflection of ourself in a sense. Not in a narcissistic way of just, oh, we're just in love with ourself. Because this is not a negative verse, this is a positive verse, right? As in water, face answereth to face, so the heart of man to man. And so when we look to our friends, we're kind of looking for someone who's like us and we wanna have some common ground. And again, what did the Bible just say a couple verses ago? Iron sharpeneth iron. Now, what do iron and iron have in common? This is not a trick question. They're both iron. Okay, so again, this is people being friends that have something in common that are alike. Now, when we go to church, we typically we use the word fellowship, right? What does that mean, fellowship? We'll say like, hey, we're gonna have some fellowship after the service. Hey, we're gonna have a time of pizza and fellowship down at the Tucson church. What do we mean by that? Well, what does the word fellow mean? Your fellow is someone who's like you. If I said fellow electrician, fellow plumber, fellow American, I'm talking about someone with whom I share something in common. And so when we say fellowship, when we're gonna enjoy fellowship, when we have fellowship one with another, what we're saying is that we have something in common that we share and so we all get together three times a week so that we can do what? Share something. And what is it that we're sharing? Christianity. We're sharing faith in Christ. We're sharing the fact that we love the Bible. We're sharing the fact that we believe that salvation is by grace through faith and that Jesus Christ is the son of God and that the Bible is the perfect word of God. And we're sharing fellowship, not everything. What if I went to a church where people don't believe what I believe? They've got a different Bible, different plan of salvation, different doctrine. Can I really have fellowship with those people? Now, maybe we can get together and talk and eat ice cream and chew the fat or shoot the breeze or whatever. But we wouldn't really be having fellowship, would we? Because what fellowship has light with darkness? What fellowship has right with, they don't have anything in common. There's no fellowship there. So when we use the word fellowship, I hope you know what it means. It means that we're getting together with like-minded people of like faith. Now, if you look around our church, you're gonna see people that are red, yellow, black and white. You're gonna see people that have a lot of money, people that are struggling to get by. You're gonna see young, old people from Arizona, people from other parts of America, other like inferior parts of the country, other people from other parts of the world even. What has brought us all together? What has brought together this motley crew? Christ, right? We've been brought together by Jesus, by the word of God. We're all here because we love the Lord. That's why we're here, right? So we have fellowship. So I automatically have something in common with people at church because of the fact that we're both Christians. And when I go other places in the world and I run into a believer, boom, there's kind of an instant connection there. Iron sharpens iron. And in the sense of our faith, we're both iron, so we can sharpen one another, we can help each other grow and improve and become better for Christ. As in water, face answer at the face, so the heart of man to man. It's nice to relate to someone, right? And our closest friends, we tell them maybe things about ourself that we wouldn't tell other people, right? We open up to them, open up to our friends. Why do we do that? Because we're seeking a deeper connection. And what we don't wanna do is we don't wanna betray that trust, obviously. When someone opens up to you and tells you something and then you betray their trust and then you gossip about them or whatever, well then that person's not gonna open up to you again and you've probably destroyed the friendship, right? The tail bearer separates chief friends, the Bible says. And so the tail bearer, the gossip, ruins friendships. So friendship is a beautiful thing when it's real, when it's for the right reasons, when it's not sycophancy or Judas Iscariot type friendship. And it's funny, when Judas shows up and kisses Jesus, what does Jesus call him? Friend. And so friendship can be beautiful. Friendship in a marriage is beautiful. Friendship between two men is beautiful. Friendship between two women is beautiful, right? Friendship can be one of the most rewarding experiences that we have in life when we get that friend with whom we have fellowship where we have that connection and we can see something of ourself in them and we can sharpen one another and make each other better and we're loyal to each other and we don't forsake our friend because the Bible says, thy own friend and thy father's friend forsake not. We should love our friends, be loyal to them, stand with them through thick and thin, and hopefully our friends are real friends. And I think about some of the friends over the years that have turned on me, but then people have often said to me, no, Pastor Anderson, none of your friends have ever turned on you because those people weren't your friends. You know, you thought they were, and that's typically how I feel when somebody turns on me is I feel like, you know what? I thought that person was my friend, but apparently they weren't because look how they turned on me and threw me under the bus. And so it's gonna happen in life when somebody turns on you like that, when somebody throws you under the bus, you know, you just walk away and you just realize, hey, that person wasn't my friend in the first place. And you know, thankfully, I've never had anyone who I was really close to turn on me. But man, I think about people that are truly close to me, what it would be like to have someone who's really close to me, like truly turn on me. And it's kind of a horrifying thought, but that's what Jesus went through because I mean, you know, Jesus, there's a lot of prophecy in the book of Psalms about Judas turning on Jesus that it was very hurtful. And that basically David, obviously, David, obviously he's speaking about betrayals that he felt in his own life. I mean, he's betrayed by his own son, Absalom. And he went through various betrayals. We're gonna go through betrayals in our life. It's painful, it's hurtful, but all we can do is just walk away and realize that person wasn't our true friend. And if you do have a true friend, if you do have a lifelong type friend, man, you should really cherish that friendship because that's a rare commodity. And you should really make sure that you value it and take care of it and not abuse that friendship because real true friendship is a rare thing where you really have a deep connection with someone and a real loyalty there. And you know, I think about some of the people that I'm the closest to. And honestly, most of them are my blood relatives if I think about the people that I'm closest to. You know, and obviously I would include my wife as being immediate family, but I'm talking family ends up being some of your closest friends. And so you kids, you should remember that when you're thinking about mistreating your siblings that family ends up sometimes being some of the most important people in your life. And some of the most important people in my life are my relatives. They are my family. And it's pretty rare that you have a real, true, close friend outside of family. And when you do, that's a precious thing. You know, and I don't wanna start mentioning some of my really close friends because then I'm leaving people out and whatever. But you know, but honestly, you know, one person I could bring up is Pastor Roger Jimenez. And I have been friends for literally like, let's see, 21 years now. And I mean, you know, we've been pretty close friends and had some really serious conversations and really close connection over the years. We've been good friends for 21. I mean, that means a lot to me. That's something that I cherish. That's something that I find precious. But you know, I do cherish that friendship, but I'm not just constantly hanging out with Pastor Jimenez or constantly talking to him, you know, because then, you know, the friendship could get burned out. You know what I mean? So you don't necessarily have to just always be with your friends every day in order for them to be your close friends. And the reason I bring this up is because I have teenagers in my home. And so I kind of understand the teenage brain and I've been a teenager before. And I'm telling you, when I was a teenager, you know, it was all about being with my friends. And when you're a teenager, you don't really sometimes, and I'm not saying this about my teenagers or anything, I'm just telling, even from my own heart, when I was a teenager, being with your family is kind of like, eh, and it's all about being with your friends. But then what's funny is that you end up not staying in touch with any of those friends and having a deep relationship with family in the long run, a lot of times. You know? I mean, I'm closer to my mom and dad than I am with any friend that I ever had growing up. Okay? I don't have any friends from when I was growing up. I mean, Pastor Jimenez, I became friends with him when I was 20. What about my elementary school friends, my junior high friends, my high school friends? Who knows where they are? I don't know. We didn't stay in touch. But you know what's funny is that my teenagers, and when I was a teenager, I felt this way, and I think this is just how teenagers are in general, man, they wanna be with their friends all the time, they wanna talk to their friends all the time, they wanna hang out with their friends all the time, and they don't understand that it could be too much of a good thing, and they could get burned out, even though that friendship is so sweet and enjoyable. Or maybe they're dating, and maybe they have a boyfriend or a girlfriend once they're old enough and reach that age, which in my house is 16 years old when they're old enough to have those kind of thoughts, no, I'm just kidding, to have those kind of relationships when they're 16. But here's the thing, you could overdo it, and you can get burned out on people because familiarity breeds contempt. So even good friendships, even a great marriage should be enjoyed in moderation. Don't be greedy. Enjoy the time that you have with your friends, and if you get to hang out with your friends, and you leave your friends, and you're kind of like hungry for a little more, that's good, that's good. You know, one of my favorite hobbies is running, I do a lot of running, I run every single day. But you know, when I go running, I don't just run until I don't wanna run anymore. I don't just run until I'm just like, I'm sick of it, I hate running, I'm done. You know, I like to stop running when I still kind of feel like running a little more. I could kind of go a little further, and I'm just like, nope, gonna stop right now. Because I don't wanna overdo it. And it's like that with anything. But we're greedy, right? Human beings are by nature greedy, and they just can't stop eating the ice cream, they just can't stop playing the video game, they just, I mean, people stay up to two, three, four, five in the morning doing what? Or binge watching a TV show. Because they just have to, you know, they don't understand that, you know, when we were growing up, the stupid stuff that we watched on TV, we had to wait a week to get another little half hour dose of Gilligan's Island or whatever. You know, but it's like, they could just watch like the whole Gilligan's Island season whatever in one night. I remember a couple times a year, there'd be like a Twilight Zone marathon. Who knows what I'm talking about? The 24 hour a day marathon. And man, you know what we would do on the Twilight Zone marathon in my house? When I was a kid growing up, we'd watch it the whole day. That's all we did. I mean, we would sit there and watch it for 10 hours, 12 hours, no joke. It was on Memorial Day weekend. So we just watched the Twilight Zone for days. And nights. Okay, we slept at night. I'm exaggerating now. And then on Labor Day was a Superman marathon. The old black and white Superman show. And we just watch it for eight hours, 10 hours, 12 hours. Why? You know what? Because that's how human beings are. They do stupid things like that. I'm not proud of this. Okay, it doesn't make any sense to sit there and just overindulge in Superman or the Twilight Zone. You know, just watch it. But the problem is in 2023 though, people can literally have a marathon like that whenever they want. Like at least when I was a kid, we had this bizarre compulsion to watch this stuff. But we could only indulge in it two times a year. So that kept us normal. That's how we survived. But if we would have been having a marathon like that every weekend, you know, then we would all be, you know, brain damaged or something by now. So don't overindulge because we have all this technology. You know, it's so easy for people to just get involved in video games and TV shows until the middle of the night and junk food and just drugs, whatever. You know, just look, live a disciplined life. Live a moderate life. Hey, enjoy being with your friends in moderation. Spend time with family, spend time with your spouse, spend time with your friends in moderation. Leave them wanting a little more. Leave yourself wanting a little more. You don't have to eat yourself sick at every meal. And you don't have to fellowship yourself sick at every gathering. Let's bow our heads in that word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for your word, Lord. And there's so much wisdom in the book of Proverbs and Lord, I pray that something that I said tonight would be helpful to someone that we could unlock some of this wisdom from your word and live a balanced life and not go through life just full all the time. Help us to know what it means to be hungry, to be thirsty, to long for our friends and not to just overindulge in every entertainment or pleasure that is available in our day, Lord, help us to control ourselves. And Lord, I pray that you would bless everyone in this building, Lord, with good, godly friends, with real, true friends that will be loyal to them and that they can be loyal to. And Lord, help them to enjoy that sweetness of friendship and help them not to abuse that friendship, Lord. And in Jesus' name, we pray, amen.