(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you with my soul with my soul it is well it is well with my soul with my soul Amen. Amen. All right. Great singing this morning. It's great to be here. It's great to have all of you here with us. At this time we're going to go through our announcements. If you don't have one of these bulletins just slip up your hand real high. We'll make sure that we could get one out to you. And if you'd open up to the front page the first page there we'll see our service time Sunday morning at ten thirty. Sunday evening at five p.m. Wednesday evening service at five p.m. Wednesday night at seven is our Bible study. We're on the last chapter of the book of Isaiah this week. We're starting up brand new with Hebrews next week. So come on out to Isaiah 66 this week. And we'll close out that book. We've got the soul winning opportunities listed there. As well as our salvation and baptisms for the month of August and then the offering tolls through the month of July down at the bottom of the page. Let's go ahead and count up if there's any soul winning done this week. If you let anyone to Christ and slip your hand up real quick so we could get those accounted for in a day. Yes sir. One on Thursday. Amen. Two on Thursday. Amen. Yes sir. What day? What day? Yes. Friday. All right. Amen. All right. Anybody else? Very good. Keep up the good work. Preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ to people and trying to lead people to Christ. Of course we've got soul winning time this afternoon. So come on out and join us for that at one thirty. We're meeting up right here and we will be going out this afternoon in between the church services. Come on out with us even if you've never gone before. Come on out and be a silent partner. You don't have to do anything other than just show up. We'd love to have you come out with us and you'll be paired up with someone who has plenty of experience and you can get an opportunity to see how we witness to people and how we try to show people that they could be saved through putting their faith in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. So come on out for that. Let's go to our prayer requests now. Let's see how is Miss Debbie doing DJ? Tuesday. Okay. So she's in a regular room because she was out of the ICU. So it's just slow slow progress like I'm taking it that's keeping her there till Tuesday. The fluid and everything just okay. Alright well this is maybe a slow process but glad that things are still continuing to improve and not deteriorate so that's good news. Continue to pray for Debbie with the lung issue that she's having. She has a disease but she also got sick recently with that complicated the lung issue made it worse so continue to pray for her. Let's see do we have any other updates? We added Joyce that's brother Keith's sister who's having heart problems and see she's scheduled to have surgery within the next month and that's a laparoscopic surgery. It's not open heart surgery so that's good but obviously it's still surgery and still heart surgery so we'll be in prayer for Joyce that everything goes well with that. Any updates on Frankie? Any results from the colonoscopy yet or not yet? Okay but he's doing well. Okay very good for that and let's continue to pray that they'll hopefully be able to figure out why that infection even arose and just make sure that it can't it won't happen again. There won't be any resurgence of any infection with with Frankie and I haven't spoken with brother Ben in a little while so I'm not sure how his father's doing. Is there any updates to anyone on the prayer list? Anybody has anything to update? Yes ma'am. So this is Lani? She's starting, I'm sorry I couldn't hear everything you said. A more aggressive chemo. When does that start? Okay. So if you weren't able to hear that Lani who has stage four breast cancer the update is that her tumors were growing back and becoming worse so they're gonna up the chemo therapy that she's receiving and try to attack it more aggressively so obviously when it comes to treatments for cancer with you know whether it be these types of treatments you know the chemo therapy and radiation treatments both of those have a very high toll on the body so those are are very very difficult for the body to handle and manage and often times you'll end up getting other problems because of the treatments because it weakens your immune system and it's very difficult for your body to take so please pray for her. Pray that God will help strengthen her body strengthen her immune system that God will help heal her and heal her completely of this cancer and that's gonna be the aggressive treatments are coming up so just pray that God will strengthen her especially in the meantime that she'll be able to get her body can be able to withstand how they're going to treat it so please pray for that. Anyone else have an update on anyone else on the list this morning? I have one other update and I forgot to and if they're watching this I apologize for not putting it in print but Josh and Liza Hill I found this on my desk and I totally slipped my mind but they had submitted a prayer request and they are praying for a successful move they're moving out here from North Carolina so they're they put in an offer on a house and they're planning on moving out here so they want a smooth transition and they're still trying to have a child so if you could please remember them in your prayers for those requests as well a smooth transition moving out here to Georgia as well as God blessing them with a child. Alright on the next page August challenges so we're in the month of August now we're doing a challenge we have a challenge every month for the rest of the year and this month it's to bring first time visitors to church and if you're if you bring a first time visitor to church you'll get a prize for being able to do so remember when we go out soul wedding and we go out talk to people to bring a follow up card with you and those are located on the bookshelf it's just a good way to help remind you to keep in contact with people that you approach out soul wedding and maybe people who are interested especially of course in wanting to come to church you talk to people you ask them maybe you lead them to Christ and then you talk to them about coming to church and see how interested they are in coming and if they're genuinely interested if they're sincere often times people are sincere when you talk to them and they really do want to and intend to come to church but other things come up and Satan is very easy to get distracted and have things kind of derailed and if you don't if people don't start coming kind of quickly often times the thought just kind of goes out of mind because they're just used to their old routines not going to church or whatever so it's important and it's a good idea to be able to communicate with people I always recommend on Saturdays to do some follow up to just at least give a phone call they give you their contact information to just follow up with them and see if they're still interested in coming to church put that thought back in their mind remind them we're having service you know you get offered we can provide rides if they need a ride or something like that and obviously within reason you know use your discretion depending on where people live we may not always be able to provide transportation but we do have people traveling from all over the place so there is a pretty good chance that someone might be able to stop by and pick them up and occasionally we will even do Ubers and things like that to to get people in to church so just keep that all in mind as we have our August challenge we've got the homeschool field trip scheduled they're beginning to continue to be scheduled we've got the first two nailed down and they're listed there we're going to the Yellow River Sanctuary that's in Lilburn so that's real close to here to the church building and it's not too far from Stone Mountain and that's going to be on Friday September 9th at 11am and then Mitcham Farms in Oxford Georgia that's a little bit farther away that's kind of towards Conyers if you don't know where I had to look up where Oxford Georgia is that's going out a little south east of here and that's also going to be on a Friday at 11am and there's other plans in the works and I'll try to get a complete schedule as soon as possible and just a heads up some of these that I know one in particular my wife was telling me about is going to require tickets in advance so always try to do your best to make sure that if you say you're going to come that you can make it we know that things happen and can come up but do your best RSVP because we really do try to plan some of these include meals some do not I'll give you more details next week specifically on these ones that are coming up exactly what that's going to include or what that's going to entail and we have sign up sheets also I forgot the sign up sheet at home I don't see Leslie sitting back there at the moment but we'll try to get that this afternoon I know she thinks she's going back home between services so we'll have that out here to be able to sign up the RSVP is important so we can make sure everything is planned well for those but the homeschool field trips are free of charge so they're always free of charge and anyone who has homeschooled children homeschool aged children and you want to come along you're welcome to come and join us on these field trips or just ask that you let us know that you're coming so we can prepare for it because here we got the Bible memory passage Hebrews chapter 4 we're on week 3 of 10 learning verses 5 and 6 this week if you could memorize the entire chapter and quote it out loud word perfect without making any errors someone else checking your work for you you'll be able to earn a prize for that I'm a little bit behind on some of the Hebrews 3 prizes now was there anyone now I'm trying to get caught up on everything so last I think it was Wednesday or Sunday I did I was trying to get caught up on all the other challenges so we had a preaching the gospel every day in the month of July try to preach the gospel in the month of June excuse me was there anyone that did not receive a prize that completed that challenge that's here today did anybody not receive a prize for that that's here today okay great how about the baptism challenge that we had in May is there anyone that completed that challenge that did not receive a prize I don't I think we got everybody covered but I just want to make sure and I don't think I owe anything older than that I don't think I owe anything older than that the last two pieces prizes I owe on are the Hebrews 3 verses 7 through 14 or something and then the rest of Hebrews chapter 3 so I'll get those to you soon we're still on Hebrews chapter 4 and we'll get squared up again on the prizes I don't have those prizes with me now but we'll get those taken care of upcoming event September 3rd soul winning marathon that is Labor Day weekend that's Saturday September 3rd the place is chosen so it's in Oxford Alabama Oxford Alabama it is less than a two hour drive from church so it's about an hour and 45 an hour and 50 minutes I did on Google maps yesterday just to see and there's areas all kind of around that area in Alabama it's in between Atlanta and Birmingham basically down to 20 so it looks like it'll be a great place I was tipped off on this place by someone one of my friends brother Tony that lives in Alabama and I'm going to be making a video hopefully today putting it out there but if you are able to make it we will be providing everything that you need to to be out there and especially if you're traveling from far we put people up in hotels to do these soul winning events so if you want to come along and do this I understand especially people with families it could be difficult to get out there in time to start doing a soul winning and everything so depending on where you live some people might live closer to here and be like yeah it's not that big of a deal great you live out on the west side of Georgia and you can make it out there not too big of a deal you already live in Alabama awesome but if you are maybe further east like say South Carolina or something like that we will provide you with hotel rooms and you can stay there Friday night if you'd like okay to get there to be there first thing in the morning on Saturday also Saturday night here if you plan on going soul winning all day we'll put you up somewhere close to church if that's something that you feel is going to be helpful for you to be able to stay then and come to church so use your discretion obviously we kind of expect people to be able to do what you can but at the same time we want as many people to go and we want to make it so that you can put in as much time as possible it's a big event and we'll definitely take care of you to go out and come out with us and do some soul winning so that is scheduled for that Saturday on Labor Day weekend and then there's the church camp for the Mountain Baptist Church in October listed there birthdays and anniversaries for the month also listed below did I miss anybody does anyone have a birthday or anniversary listed in August or not listed here in August that's still coming up did I miss anybody no one's raising their hand so I'm going to assume that's a no alright that's about it for our announcements I'm going to turn the service back over to brother Peter he's going to lead us to our next song alright church if you can open up your hymnals to song number 65 song number 65 just over in the glory land song number 65 just over in the glory land church let's sing this out with all our hearts I'm alone prepared where the saints abide just over in the glory land and I long to be by my Savior's side just over in the glory land just over in the glory land I'm alone prepared where the saints abide just over in the glory land just over in the glory land I'll join and the angel will just over in the glory land just over in the glory land just over in the glory land just over in the glory land there with the mighty host house just over in the glory land just over in the glory land I am on my way to most vengeance just over in the glory land just over in the glory land there to sing God's praise and glory share just over in the glory land just over in the glory land I'll join and the angel will just over in the glory land just over in the glory land I'll join the mighty host house just over in the glory land what a joyful thought that my Lord I'll see just over in the glory land and if interest stay there forever be just over in the glory land just over in the glory land I'll join and the angel just over in the glory land just over in the glory land there with the mighty host house just over in the glory land on the last glory land by the horse and us to Christ the Lord and keep just over in the glory land just over in the glory land I'll join the happy angel just over in the glory land just over in the glory land the mighty host house just over in the glory land Amen church, great singing and this time we play their Sunday morning offering ask the ushers if they can collect the plates for me the church while the offering plates are being passed around you can open up your Bibles the book of Proverbs chapter 22 that was the book of Proverbs chapter 22 and as we do customary here at stronghold Baptist church we're going to read the entire chapter and ask brother Devin if he can please do that for us once again that was Proverbs 22 a good name is rather to be chosen than great riches and loving favor rather than silver and gold the rich and poor meet together the Lord is the maker of them all a prudent man foreseeeth the evil and hideth himself but the simple pass on and are punished by humility and the fear of the Lord for riches and honor and life thorns and snares are in the way of the fraud he that doth keep his soul shall be far from them train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it the rich ruleth over the poor and the borrower is servant to the lender he that soweth iniquity shall reap vanity and the rod of his anger shall fail he that hath a bountiful eye shall be blessed for he giveth of his bread to the poor cast out this corner and contention shall go out yea strife and reproach shall cease he that loveth pureness of heart for the grace of his lips the king shall be his friend the eyes of the Lord preserve knowledge and he overthroweth the words of the transgressor the slothal man saith there is a lion without I shall be slain in the streets the mouth of strange women is a deep pit he that is abhorred of the Lord shall fall therein foolishness is bound in the heart of a child but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him he that oppresseth the poor to increase his riches and he that giveth to the rich shall surely come to want bow down thine ear and hear the words of the wise and apply thine heart unto my knowledge for it is a pleasant thing if thou keep them within thee they shall with all be fitted in thy lips that thy trust may be in the Lord I have made known unto thee this day even to thee have not I written to thee excellent things and counsels and knowledge that I might make thee know the certainty of the words of truth that thou mightest answer the words of truth to them that send unto thee rob not the poor because he is poor neither oppress the afflicted in the gate for the Lord will plead their calls and spoil the soul of those that spoil them make no friendship with an angry man and with a furious man thou shalt not go lest thou learn his ways and get a snare to thy soul be not thou one of them that strike hands or serve them that are sureties for debts if thou hast nothing to pay why should he take away thy bed from under thee for move not the ancient landmark which thy fathers have set seest thou a man diligent in his business he shall stand before kings he shall not stand before mean men brother Josh Taylor can you pray for us please come in alright the subject I want to preach on this morning is the subject of choosing your friends and having the right friends versus the wrong friends the title of my sermon is the wrong friends and this this teaching this subject is applicable to everybody you know whether you're young whether you're old kids we often kind of think about kids choosing their friends and maybe you feel like this sermon is more geared for children but it's not it's geared for everybody we all have the choice and there's a reason we choose our friends you can't choose your family the house that you're born into but you can choose your friends the people who you choose to spend your time with the people who you want to to just do things with and ultimately just spending your time with and the reason why it's really important is because um your friends and other people just in general influence you and the more time you spend around other people the more influence they're going to have over you and often times we don't even realize the influence that people can have over us because it's something that will happen gradually it's something that happens over a shorter or excuse me a longer period of time I was actually just on the phone this week with the with the pastor from um from the church down in Tifton, Georgia and he was asking me I told my parents were in town and my family was visiting and and he was asking me if I had seen him recently and then was asking if they uh if they had made any comments about the way that I talk yet about about any southern speaking and and I said no but you know I talk to him often enough that if there is a difference now because I've only been out here for about four years and I said there's been a couple times you know I've got my church members saying good job pastor Burzins when I start using the proper terminology and and start talking to y'all like it's nothing like it's it's it flows out of my mouth without uh having to force any of the vernacular so it does happen things like that will change the way that you speak can change but you know the way you speak is something that's very mild very simple uh often times will have nothing to do with sinfulness it's just you're kind of picking up colloquialisms you're picking up uh maybe accents and the way that people talk no big deal but it's it's it's a it's a sign it kind of shows you of of a greater um event that takes place in general with us kind of assimilating with people around us and the way that we're designed we're we're very social creatures and you say well I'm not pastor Burzins I'm an introvert okay but when I talk about social I'm not saying that like everybody wants to go out and talk to other people what I mean in this sense is just the influence that you have everyone has a general desire to want to kind of fit in and have acceptance among other people among fellow human beings in general right now we're commanded to be separate we're commanded to make sure that we are putting a difference between good and evil and that we make stands and that we behave in a manner regardless of what anyone around us does that's in line with what scripture tells us what the bible tells us and we have to remind ourselves because the natural man and the natural tendency is to kind of go along with the flow and you know we've heard the phrase before be a sheep right just kind of go along and do what other people do and I don't care who it is saying you know talking about sheeple and being a sheep everybody every human being succumbs to that to some degree or another all of us do because it's a fact of our human nature it's a way that God designed us to um to kind of follow along some social norms and there's a good reason for that I'm not going to get into any of the science behind that of why that can be a good thing but the it can also be a very bad thing and the reason why I'm even bringing all this up is because when you choose a friend the people you spend more time with and the more time around you will start to become more like them you will pick up their habits this happens this can happen on the job this can happen you know just through friendships outside of work or whatever interests that other people have that you might not have had any interest in before I've had friends or they've had interests and it's just like I never wanted to do anything to do with that but then all of a sudden I make friends with them and now next thing you know I'm doing those things right and it doesn't have to be a bad thing like I said it's not always bad but there's things that you can just get into and start to like and enjoy and do that you might not have done before because of the influence of your friends so when you're choosing who you're going to be friends with you need to make sure and be careful not to make the wrong choices and the wrong friends because you don't want someone who's just going to drag you down and get you really worldly and sinful because you will learn from them look at Proverbs 22 verse 24 the Bible teaches this right here make no friendship with an angry man and with a furious man thou shalt not go look at verse 25 lest thou learn his ways and get a snare to thy soul so the Bible's warning hey don't make friends with this particular type of person and in this context it's talking about an angry man so someone who just gets angry real quick is just real quick to anger really short fuse really hot tempered because you will learn his ways so you might have patience you might be like oh well I'm fine because I have patience I could be friends with that person yeah they kind of fly off the handle you know whatever but the Bible's saying don't make friends with them make no friendship with the angry man why because then you might learn their ways and it's going to ruin you and it's going to spoil you whereas you might have been patient in the past you're going to see how this person has no control over themselves and you might just start thinking it's appropriate well I mean they're flying off the handle so why not why not me you know and this goes along similarly in a similar fashion with a little leaven leavens a whole lump and with just sinfulness in general why not be careful about that now obviously we have to balance this because we can't have as our teaching on Wednesday night a holier than thou attitude where you say I can't be friends with anybody because you're all just a bunch of hypocrites and you're all just a bunch of sinners well look I mean look we are all we are all sinners absolutely we're all sinners but there does have to be a dividing line you're going to have to make that line in the sand of going you know what this this person it's just they're kind of they're living too much of a sinful life they've got too many characteristic traits about them that if I spend my time with them you know I might I don't want to become like them in these areas I don't want that to be like me and if you can see that and recognize that you have to first you have to think about that because most people won't think about these things when you choose to become friends with people sometimes all it takes is for someone to be contacting you they want to be friends with you yeah sure why not hey you doing anything this weekend hey do anything on Friday hey do anything on Saturday come on now I got to do this oh yeah great cool and it's easy to form friendships that way but we as God's people we need to be thinking about these things and especially parents thinking about these things with your children when you start to see traits and patterns and characteristics of other children that are not good that are ungodly that are wicked you know you need to guard your children and protect them from those things because if you let them just continue to be friends with people who are ungodly they're going to become ungodly and often too often I think people have this mindset and it's good intended mindset of going well we can help them and make them become better right now look I'm all for trying to help people and make them become better but you can't yoke up and just become good friends with people who have a lot of problems like that it doesn't mean you have to never speak to them again okay but it does mean that you should be careful on who you're spending your time with regularly if you want to help people out and say well this person you know they could use some help they could use some love they could use some attention they could use some wisdom from the word of God great try to get that person to come to church try to get that person in the gospel if they're not even saved try to get you know try to try to do things to help in that manner but be conscious of it and thinking about it and say you can't just become these great buds with people who have these big problems in their life and even as a child you might be thinking well wow it's just so sad because he must be picking up all this behavior from home well that is sad but your responsibility is to your children first and foremost not to other people's children now if we can help other people's children if we can help other people in general great let's do it but not at the cost not at the sacrifice of your own children as a parent you have a responsibility to your children to keep them pure now we're going to look at some examples in the Bible of people who ended up choosing bad friends and the case I'm specifically going to look at first Genesis chapter 34 you can turn to Genesis chapter 34 is a case of Dinah and especially a case of a lack of parental oversight we only need to look at two verses in Genesis chapter 34 to see the problem here Jacob moves to an area he's in the heathen land and he's kind of outside this town and he goes and makes his abode there outside of Shechem and they just move in and of course the children they're going to want to make friends and Dinah wants to go out and see what's going on and go out on the town and see what she could find and try to make friends look at verse number one the Bible says the daughter of Leah which he burned to Jacob went out to see the daughters of the land so her intent is just I'm going to go out I'm going to find the daughters of land see what it's all about and go try to make some friends well the first mistake here is that we see no oversight she's just going to go out and find the daughters of the land you know and what happens though instead of just finding the seeing the daughters of the land she must she must have found them she must not have just seen them she must have started to hang out with them because what's the next thing that happens in verse two and when Shechem the son of Hamor the Hivite prince of the country saw her he took her and lay with her and defiled her so she's out starts hanging out with the heathen daughters of the land and the next thing you know she's committing fornication because that's what happens in the story she's defiled because she was a virgin and did not get married to this man and they lied together and committed a wicked sin and this is one of the things that happens because out in the world you're going to have different standards in Shechem and we see this clearly and I wasn't going to go through the whole story here but you can read it later this guy the bible says that this guy was more honorable than everybody in this whole house like this is the most honorable guy and he's committing fornication like that's the standard like this guy's more honorable than everyone else you would hope that the most honorable guy would be the guy that's going to say you know what I'm going to just wait till marriage I mean wouldn't that be a better standard of like of who's honorable no the most honorable guy here is just the guy who after he's committed fornication wants to get married and is willing to do a bunch of stuff to try to get this woman to be his wife this is what the world's going to have to offer this is what the heathens going to this is going to be a good a good guy in the eyes of the world this is going to be the shining example and when you start letting people letting your children go out and hanging out with the wrong crowd and with people who have those standards they're going to adopt those standards it's going to be a lot easier for them to succumb to that pressure of well this is how everybody does it here okay and the pressure's real especially in social settings I mean you get a bunch of kids together or even adults like I said it's not just geared for children I mean you put a bunch of adults in a room it's hard to resist what everybody else wants to do or starts doing it's easy to go with the flow a lot easier to go along with what's being done and the problem is you might follow a multitude to do evil the Bible says we're not supposed to do that let's look at our next example flip over to chapter 38 in Genesis so this example Dinah made some bad friends she made bad choices on who to be friends with because she ends up committing fornication and then as a result of that fornication it wasn't right but a lot of people died there was you know kind of two evils then committed as a result of this and you know the wages of sin is death and that's ultimately what happens in the end when you get some wicked sins going on here look at verse number 11 of Genesis chapter 38 we're going to look at Judah the story of Judah the Bible says then said Judah to Tamar's daughter in law remain a widow at thy father's house till Sheila my son be grown now first of all Judah wasn't the shining example of a good parent either he had these two sons Ur and Onan these two sons you can read earlier in this chapter God kills these two men both of them they do wicked things and God directly kills them God has them killed God is the one that takes their life from them that is not a very that is not something you want to be well known for as a father to say oh yeah my kids were so wicked that God just had to kill them so this is the influence of Judah and you have to wonder where did these influences come from they probably didn't come from Jacob but look who his friends is we're talking here we're going to introduce to his friend the Bible says verse 12 and in process of time the daughter of Shewa Judah's wife died and Judah was comforted and went up unto his sheep shearers to Timnath he and his friend Hira the Adulamite so he's got this Adulamite even friend Hira his wife dies so he goes and goes to hang out with his friend the Adulamite and it says and it was told Tamar saying behold thy father in law goeth up to Timnath to shear his sheep and she put her widow's garments off from her and covered her with a veil and wrapped herself and sat in an open place which is by the way to Timnath for she saw that Sheila was grown and she was not given unto him to wife when Judah saw her he thought her to be in harlot because she had covered her face now if Judah was a righteous person here he should be able to say wow there's a harlot I'm not even going to look at her I'm just going to keep on moving on because it's a harlot now we're not going to go into the story of why Sheila did what she did everything else inconsequential to what we're talking about today he sees a woman that looks like a harlot to him he thinks she's a harlot instead of moving on his way and not going by her way and not going by her house like the book of Proverbs would teach instead he confronts her and look he's with a friend it says here in verse 16 and he turned unto her by the way and said go to I pray thee let me come in unto thee for he knew not that she was his daughter in law and she said what wilt thou give me that thou mayest come in unto me and he gives her a pledge and gives her some of his personal items since he didn't have any money with them and stuff like that and then he commits that act and then when everything's said and done he sends his friend it says in verse 19 and she arose and went away and laid by her veil from her and put on the garments of her widowhood and Judah sent the kid by the hand of his friend the Adulamite to receive his pledge from the woman's hand but he found her not now who's worse here I don't know but if he had a good friend the good friend would have been the person preventing you from going in to a harlot the good friend would be like Judah wait what are you doing I mean I know you just lost your wife but that is not what you need to be doing right now let's just keep moving on and go to shear the sheep like we're supposed to be doing but instead he's just right there along with him going yeah sure I'll go pay the prostitute I'll go do that for you and is not a good influence and is not a good friend where obviously his friend must he must have already known that his friend would be okay with it to even go ahead and approach and do something so shameful in front of his friend right normally when people have you know decent friends or just people that you care about in general if you're going to go do something shameful you're not going to want to be seen by people that you know and love and you know think that they respect you or whatever because you don't want them to think less of you and what this tells me about Hira is that that must not have been a very that must not have been a standard for him that Judy even had to worry about going in unto a prostitute oh yeah no big deal I mean imagine if you heard one of your friends went to a prostitute you'd be like what you did what how in the world could you do I mean you'd be outraged hopefully you'd be outraged I would be outraged if I heard any member of my family or any of my friends or anyone like that ended up going and seeing a prostitute I would be outraged it would not be I wouldn't say oh oh you still owe some money I'll go I'll go pay that for you it's crazy right but this is look this is what happens the people that you choose to be and look there's people out there who don't think it's a big deal to go and see prostitutes don't make friends with people like that I know it's a no brainer but look it happened to Judah Judah the tribe of Judah the tribe that Jesus Christ came forth of Judah whose father was Israel I mean it happens we need to be careful you need to take heed lest you fall the Bible says that all these things were written for our admonition and all these things like all these stories in the Old Testament all these things it's like why do we need to hear about why do we need to hear about Judah going into some prostitute why does that even in the Bible why it's for our admonition and so we could learn from these stories and learn from their mistakes so that we could avoid these pitfalls and understand who these people are and understand what gets them to that point so that we don't have to learn by experience we could learn by the word of God and say whoa look this is this can happen this can happen if you have a godly father and still have children that go off and do wicked things if they're not taught and trained right it's a big deal flip over to 2 Samuel chapter 13 we're going to see another example of a person who had a bad friend Amnon son of David David the king David who had a heart after God's own heart David a righteous man 2 Samuel 13 verse number 1 look this is an extremely troubling story for those of you who already know this story this is very disturbing and there's very disturbing stories in the Bible and we have to read them and not forget them and not gloss over them and preachers ought to be going over these things so you don't have people that are saved believers never hearing about these stories in church I know it's not pleasant but it's so critical it's so important if you don't want these unpleasant things happening in your family then you need to read about them in the Bible and get the proper understanding and be like whoa look I don't want anything like this ever to happen let's take stock let's again tighten up the belt get our standards back in line because what happens over and over and over again is our standards tend to slip we need to get them back in line they tend to slip we need to get them back in line it happens we're sinful human beings now this is a major slip we don't want to come anywhere close to where this is look at verse number 1 2 Samuel 13 it came to pass after this that Absalom the son of David had a fair sister whose name was Tamar and Amnon the son of David loved her so this is his half sister and he's infatuated with his sister and look this is wrong in itself ok but he has these feelings for her it says in verse 2 and Amnon was so vexed that he fell sick for his sister Tamar for she was a virgin and Amnon thought it hard for him to do anything to her and that's very important in understanding where Amnon's mind is at where Amnon's heart is at all on his own with his own upbringing with his own morals with his own just view point he's saying you know what it would be hard for me to do anything in this situation he loves her and whatever but he's saying you know what if he's left to himself he's not going to touch her he's not going to do anything with Tamar but he really has this strong lust he really has this strong desire within him in his flesh but by himself here he's kind of he's containing that but all it takes as we'll see is a friend to push him over that line to push him over that limit to influence him just enough to commit a heinous horrible act that never ought to be done verse number 3 says I mean right after verse 2 you know what it's hard for him to do anything for but Amnon had a friend who's name was Jonadab the son of Shimea David's brother and Jonadab was a very subtle man so you want to look about people who you don't want to become friends with people have attributes like they're subtle subtle means they're sneaky they're snake-like okay they have other intentions and they've got ways of saying things that are real smooth but they have ulterior motives and their intentions aren't always clear because they're subtle watch out for sneaky people like that you don't want to be friends with people you'd be like oh there might be a good asset or a good ally for me to have someone who's subtle like that yeah what if they're being subtle with you and someone who already has that type of characteristic about them who knows what other sins they've got that's not the type of person you want to be a friend with as we could clearly see from this story verse 4 and he said unto him why art thou being the king's son lean from day to day wilt thou not tell me and Amnon said unto him I love Tamar my brother Absalom's sister so right off the bat we see his subtlety in verse 4 even in the way that he questions why did he have to add why art thou being the king's son lean from day to day meaning why are you lean what is it that's wrong with you you deserve to have you're the king's son you should have everything well should you have everything just because you're the king's son are you just deserving of everything no well why are you lean from day to day I mean you're the king's son you should I mean you should just get whatever you because this is what he ends up telling him to do oh well if that's what you want then that's what you should get I mean you're the king's son but it's a subtle way of saying it we can see the intent we can see what he's really saying without him coming out forward and just spelling it out explicitly because he's a subtle man he gets that thought across that idea across without making it extremely explicit in the way that he says things that's what a subtle person does so he tells him he's like look I'm in love with my Absalom's sister and Jonadab said unto him lay thee down on thy bed and make thyself sick and when thy father cometh to see thee say unto him I pray thee let my sister Tamar come and give me meat and dress the meat in my sight that I may see it and eat it at her hand now at no point does he say anything about telling Amnon to force his sister but that's what happens he just comes up with this scheme saying oh well you love your sister well here's what you do here's what you do you make yourself look like you're sick you be deceptive and you make your dad think that you're sick so that he could send Tamar in to your bedroom so that you could be alone with her in your bedroom but see Jonadab's gonna say well I didn't say to do that why because he's a subtle man and these people who you think are your friends they're gonna be the first ones to back out on you and stab you in the back and be like I didn't tell him I mean he did that we're actually gonna see that later on the knowledge that he has and how he's just throwing people under the bus as so called friends and just you know whatever he doesn't care about them he's a wicked person and I'm not gonna read through this story you can read it later if you want Amnon forces his sister and then he hates her and sends her out and it's a very greedy I mean that's a death penalty sin it's horrible horrible one of the worst things that you could do to a person it really is that bad he wouldn't have done it on his own but with the encouragement from a wicked friend he did it the friend gave him all the opportunity to do it and then he now he still made the choice but look he wouldn't have done it without the influence of his friend and obviously you're responsible for every action that you do but you want to be careful about the situations you put yourself in and the advice and everything that your friend's gonna tell you to do which is why you don't want to have a wicked friend you want to have a good friend because sometimes you could be weak sometimes you could be weak in your flesh and all it takes is that wicked friend to encourage you or embolden you to do something that you already know you shouldn't do it's all it takes you got that one buddy that likes to drink and all it takes is that that weak moment you have a hard day things are going wrong all over the place all around you and you're like man all I want to do is just have a drink well hey come on out with me you don't have to have anything to drink I know you don't drink well why don't you just come out and hang out with me at the bar that's all it takes that's all it takes and then they get you there and you sit down and you know next thing you know getting drunk or whatever right it happens it happens a lot we need to make sure we're choosing our friends wisely if we jump down to verse number 30 there we're going to see now what happens Jonadab just has all the information here because what happens is Absalom kills Amnon that's Absalom's sister that he forced we could understand the rage that he would feel towards Amnon after committing such an act like that so Absalom sets a trap for him and invites him over basically and then executes justice on him and look on the one hand we could say well hey justice was served but on the other hand that's not that wasn't Absalom's place to do that either it should have been done lawfully it should have been done in order and this is also one of the things you get as a side note when you don't have justice properly carried out when people could look at this when David finds out about it and does nothing about it because it's his son instead of executing the justice as it was his job to do as a king his authority to have to put that to trial and make that happen I don't care what your reasons are for not wanting to do it you need to execute this type of justice otherwise you're going to get things like this happening and that's what happened that's why you have in countries where you just have absolutely zero law zero order no type of justice really being done people just take the law into their own hands and that's where you start getting all kinds of craziness and anarchy and everything else because you need to have a society that's run by the rule of law and that follows ultimately that would follow God's law that's going to be the best rule of law to follow anyways I don't want to get off on that subject we're going to go back to talking about friends here verse 30 says and it came to pass while they were in the way that tidings came to David saying Absalom had slain all the king's sons and there was not one of them left then the king arose and tear his garments and lay on the earth and all his servants stood by with their clothes rent and Jonadab so who shows up? Jonadab so the king thinks that all of his sons were killed right? Jonadab shows up now to be the good guy with the good news notice how he inserts himself in this situation the son of Shema David's brother answered and said let not my lord suppose that they have slain all the young men the king's sons for Amnon only is dead for by the appointment of Absalom this has been determined from the day that he forced his sister Tamar now therefore let not my lord the king take the thing to his heart to think that all the king's sons are dead for Amnon only is dead so here he is he's bringing the good news that oh not all of your children are dead now my question is how did he know about that? yeah right makes you wonder if he was involved with Absalom getting vengeance on Amnon he's the one causing the situation and he flips over to the other side and then here he is trying to make sure that he's the one giving this oh yeah it wasn't all of them it was just him it was just because of that distancing himself from having any fault in the situation to begin with he wants to be perceived as the good guy he's subtle not the guy you want to be friends with ever turn if you would to James chapter 4 we have one more example of someone who chose a wrong friend and chose him for the wrong reason and that's Samson in Judges chapter 14 verse number 20 the Bible says but Samson's wife was given to his companion whom he had used as his friend so when Samson has all that problem with the bet with his marriage and everything else and then he ends up leaving they end up giving his wife to another man and that other man was his friend well it says it was his companion because there weren't real friends but it says he used him as his friend and when you have people that you make friends with so you could use them they're not going to have loyalty to you and you're not going to have your heart because you're using them you don't use people as friends you become friends for them now there's a lot of benefits to having good friends right it's very beneficial to have good friends it's beneficial to you but to think about it the right way when you're looking for friends you want to be a benefit to them you don't want to just use people and as a result Samson didn't have a friend that said no I can't marry her I mean that's my friend he just got married to her he said yeah sure I'll take her now how many of you want to have a friend that's just going to say oh yeah I don't care yeah go ahead and do what you want with her as opposed to loving you and caring about you and your interests and your needs say no no no because that's what a good friend does a good friend's going to care about you you're in James chapter 4 look at verse number 4 we're finishing up here with bad examples and the wrong kind of friends and the things you don't want to people you want to avoid the Bible says in verse 4 ye adulterous and adulterous is 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 now obviously it says well Pastor Burns is talking about being a friend of the world so we shouldn't be a friend of the world that's true that's exactly what this is saying but let's apply that I mean if you're going to be a friend of the world what if you have someone you're going to be a friend that's just someone who's completely worldly if God's commanding us not to be a friend of the world and all the things that the world puts out and what the world's all about why would you want to be friends with someone who's just like the world I mean that's not a very far logical leap to take it's actually a very appropriate application hey if you have someone that's just completely worldly not a good choice in friends because whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God you don't want to end up going from today being a servant of God being beloved of the Lord serving him being blessed of God and then yoking up with someone who's just completely worldly has nothing to do with church nothing to do with the Bible nothing to do with serving the Lord who's going to be an enemy of God and then you're yoking up with that person what is that going to do for your spiritual life it's going to drag it down 1 Corinthians chapter 5 there's a whole bunch of people here that we're supposed to break fellowship with if they're a brother in Christ right obviously if this is if these things are that bad then we should probably look to this list and be like hey if I know people who are guilty of these things like this is who they are this is what they do you don't want to become friends with them because you don't want to learn their ways you don't want to be like them verse 9 says I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators so he's like I already told you about this and you got friends that are just engaging in fornication not the right kind of friends now he clarifies he says yet not all together with the fornicators of this world or the covetous or extortioners with dollars then must you need to go out of the world now here's the thing with this standard we got to understand the last verse says therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person that these are people that you should be having no contact with whatsoever so this is more extreme than just not being friends with them this is like I'm not even going to go out to eat with you because you could go out to eat with someone who's not your friend can't you you could meet up with someone who's not technically like your friend not your best bud but you can see a person occasionally from time to time more like an acquaintance right or you go out for business or whatever and you could go out and sit down with people you could be friendly with people without being friends with them right does that make sense in this situation he's talking about people who are known as a brother verse 11 but now I've written unto you not to keep company of any man that is called a brother be a fornicator or covetous or an idolater or a railer or a drunkard or an extortioner with such and one know not to eat so that's the standard with other saved people with other brothers and sisters in Christ he's saying you know what if people are guilty of these things you don't even go out and have a meal with them now that's the standard for other saved people but he already brought up that the fact that you know the world's full of people like this he's not saying you can't have anything to do with people out in the world like that cause then you'd just not be able to go anywhere and do anything however if we're looking at who am I going to choose to become good buddies with and be good friends with and spend my time with on a regular basis do you think it's a wise thing to choose somebody that's engaged in any of these activities to say yep that's going to be my good close personal friend no because you're going to learn their ways now look as I mentioned before we're all sinners we all have our own problems and imperfections so you want to be careful not to just nitpick every single thing but I'll tell you what this lives in 1 Corinthians 5 this isn't nitpicking ok drunkards, extortioners fornicators like this isn't some small little thing oh I've got this little problem in my life it's called being a drunk no that's a big problem in your life I've got this little problem in my life and it's extortion yeah it's a small problem that's like something someone in the mafia might say I've got this little problem you know I have this tendency to just extort things out of people no that's a big deal right so these are big you see these things happening obviously don't make friends with people like that now do we want people to change? yes even in this chapter other believers we want them to change but there's a point of separation that we all need to make this is the point of separation between believers and there's another point of separation you need to make with the world too where the worldly should not be your best friends you can engage with the world we do that all the time engage with the world, try to lead them to Christ, try to be that influence but not by yoking up and just being best buddies with them, that's not how it works you have to take heed to yourself lest you fall man I'm running out of time here alright I'm going to skip over this really wanted to cover this but I'll skip over that for the sake of time I'll skip over that too let's talk about good friends let's look at some examples of good friends so if you go to 1 Samuel chapter 18 1 Samuel chapter 18 1 Samuel chapter 18 you could overcome the bad influence of bad friends in your life, of course we're all able to overcome that but it really makes your life difficult some examples we already looked at today with Dinah, with Samson with Amnon I mean Amnon got killed as a result of his friend choice not solely from that obviously but I mean his friend led him to death Judah now Judah was able to I think get things right in his life eventually but look at all the heartache and problems that David had earlier on look at all these things and Dinah we don't really know much more about but there's yes you can move on and praise God for that being able to move on and not necessarily be destroyed but hey, why go through all the heartache if you don't have to now David is someone we see a few examples of him having good friends David made some really good friends David had people, one, who was very loyal to him he had a group of friends that were with him through all of his trials and tribulations one of his best friends we're going to read about here in 1 Samuel chapter 18 is Jonathan verse number 1 the Bible says and it came to pass when he had made an end of speaking unto Saul now verse chapter 17 is the story of David and Goliath, that's chapter 17 so at the very end of chapter 17 you know David speaking to Saul and then Jonathan is obviously in the company because chapter 18 verse 1 is where we're picking up here David speaks to Saul he just defeated the giant and you know it's a great victory and it says as soon as he made an end speaking unto Saul that the soul of Jonathan was knit with the soul of David and Jonathan loved him as his own soul so Jonathan sees this and he's just like man, I love this guy what a great guy what a great victory what a great thing and look, having a hero and especially someone who's a hero of the faith that's not a bad thing Jonathan recognizes some greatness in David but what's that greatness because he's serving the Lord with all of his heart he gave God the glory I mean everything about this and we know earlier Jonathan had the same heart that's what drew him to David because Jonathan's the one who with his armor bearer alone he is seeking the Lord he's saying you know what, God is able to give us his victory just like David knows God's able to give him this victory because God doesn't need a whole multitude to save and to win battles and win wars, he could save with just one or two people Jonathan knew this, David knew this and because they both have that same mindset Jonathan sees this in David, Jonathan went with his armor bearer, he had that great victory and the Philistines fled before them and now he sees this in David and he's like, man, I love this guy these are the type of friendships you want to make and this is a real friendship, look at this, it says in verse number 2, and Saul took him that day and would let him go no more home to his father's house, then Jonathan and David made a covenant because he loved him as his own soul and Jonathan stripped himself of the robe that was upon him and gave it to David and his garments, even to his sword and to his bow and to his girdle Jonathan is the friend that gave you his shirt off his own back I mean that's literally what we're seeing here that's the type of friend you want and that's the type of friend that you should be when you make friendships with somebody, now look we know that David wasn't perfect and Jonathan wasn't perfect either, the Bible records both of them committing sins but David loved the Lord and Jonathan loved the Lord and they wanted to serve God and they weren't distracted with all the cares of this world and into everything else, this was the focus and Jonathan loved him and Jonathan loved him enough to say, you know what, I'll give you the shirt off my back right now because that's what real friends do and I think this concept of good friendships and real friends is really dwindled and it's very similar to how marriage seems to mean nothing anymore in our culture, people have no value on the vow on committing to someone and being till death do us part, we're gonna stay together and making that commitment and making that decision saying this is gonna work it just gets too hard for people or more often I think it's it's about what I feel right? The selfishness and the selfish nature of people that are losing their love and care for others and they care more about themselves and that's why you see so much divorce this is also why very few people have real friends real friends there's always gonna be some friends that come and go but you know what, you ought to have some real friends in your life the friend that when you are in need, when you have a problem, you need anything, your friend is there for you and you know where you're gonna find the best friends you find the best friends of people who are serving God people who have that value, that selfless trait that they're trying to apply in their own life as they follow Christ who is selfless in his walk and his nature here on this earth when he came and gave himself to us and gave us that example of someone who's a servant, someone who's a minister hey, when you have other people who are trying to do the same thing, those are the best friends to have people are gonna understand what it really means to be a friend, people who are gonna choose and make a conscious choice you're gonna be my friend and when you make that choice, you do things for friends because they're your friend because you want to be a good friend to them that you might not otherwise do for any random person but if that's my friend I'll do that for you I mean, I can think of sacrifices I've made in my life for people I chose, I said that's gonna be I'm gonna be a friend to that person and you probably can too but we need to, that's the way a good friendship should be and I'll tell you what, you know members of our church, I'm friends with you I count you as my friends not just my church members you're my friends we're brothers and sisters in Christ and we ought to be looking out for each other the same way Jonathan gave the shirt off his own back David had a great friend in Jonathan you know what, they looked out for each other too Jonathan was looking out for David when Saul's trying to kill him they had this great relationship a great friendship that that is a that is a model for friendships that we ought to have look at 2 Samuel, you're in 1 Samuel turn to 2 Samuel chapter 16 David also had a friend in Hushai Hushai the Archite after the coup from his son Absalom right, and Absalom steals the hearts of many people and some people turn on David but David still has a lot of people that are friends with him and they leave the city and they kind of go off into hiding David has all this stuff going on with Absalom and they're planning their moves David leaves his friend Hushai there to kind of infiltrate with Absalom and to be able to see what's going on and Hushai sticks behind because he's a friend to David and he's kind of going to spy it out for David and be able to have a voice and be able to communicate back with David what's going on so he can have that inside information Hushai is someone who does not turn his back on David when things get tough, when things get hard he wasn't a fair weather friend oh well it looks like Absalom's in charge so I'm going to be friends with Absalom now it's like people do with sports like who's the winning team, I don't even know anymore who's the winning football team, who's the winning baseball team, people just become fans because they win a lot or whatever, like oh I'm going to be a fan of that team because they win, like well how about why don't you just be loyal, show some loyalty and you know that's a whole other subject I don't really care that much about sports but I don't when I was into sports I would always hate particular teams because the teams that won a lot would end up having a lot of fans and it's like why are you like a Yankees now if you're a Yankees fan I don't care I don't hold that against you, it doesn't really matter to me anymore but I hated Yankees fans why? Because everybody was a Yankees fan it was just like did you ever even go to New York before? No, but why are you a Yankees fan? Because they buy good teams I don't know, I mean it's whatever right like these are the things it's called fair weather and then if they start losing a lot they're going to be like oh well yeah now I like this team whatever sports, people do that, it doesn't mean anything who cares it's a sport, it's a team you shouldn't have that level of connection to some team you don't even play for, you've never played for, you never will play for, whatever that doesn't matter, but you know it doesn't matter your friends and you don't want to have friends that when things start going bad or when things start going tough they're just going to dump you and just say see ya I'm moving on to someone else who's successful because I'll tell you what, when things are going well for you you'll also find people who want to be friends with you because they think they could gain from you that's another reason why we've got to be careful about the friends that we choose and who's coming into your life and wanting to be your friend is it just for them to get gain or is it because they actually care about you and it's not always easy to discern that right but we need to be aware of it and be able to think about those things and keep ourselves guarded to some degree to be able to make sure that people aren't just out to use you or whatever um you know it doesn't mean you should never open up and just because you get burned doesn't mean you never open up right we still need to be able to love people and be friends with people and be friendly to people but be careful with choosing them because you go out of your way to choose a friend you have that choice you know I'm not going to read this for the sake of time I'm already going a lot longer than I wanted to but he basically ends up just giving the intel he ends up um giving this council to Absalom where um Ahithophel the other guy Ahithophel was giving if he would have listened to Ahithophel's council he probably would have defeated David because Ahithophel gave the right advice and this was right after David fled and he's gone Ahithophel had a way to just like he's like you go after David right now he's weak he's on the run you get him and you take him down and you could take you could end this real quickly and that was the better advice but Hushai David's friend is like no let's gather up all these troops and let's get everyone together and we'll make a big statement and we'll go in and we'll get them and that was bad because then there's like this huge risk for this big disaster which it turned out to be a big disaster David had time to to get everything in order and be able to defend himself and defend himself with like guerrilla warfare and stuff he's out in the in the in the in the forest and stuff and out in the desert he was able to defend himself a lot better but Hushai did that because he's David's friend and he was looking out for him and he had his interests at heart and David benefited from having that great friendship so Jonathan and Hushai are good examples of David being a person being benefited from having those good friends in their lives The Bible says in Pro- Turn if you go to Proverbs Proverbs 27 We'll close on Proverbs 27 It's really important to have good friends It's really important to not have bad friends For as important as it is to not have people who are going to bring you down and get you into sin and get you doing a bunch of wicked things You also want to have people who have your back to be your friends You also want to have people that are going to love you in all situations They're going to love you The Bible says in Proverbs 17 You're in Proverbs 27 A friend loveth at all times and a brother is born for adversity A friend loveth at all times A true friend is going to be there for you Through thick and thin Obviously it's not quite as extreme but it's kind of like a marriage When you make a friend with someone You're not making a vow till death do us part like you do and the union of two becoming one Obviously it's not that extreme but in a sense a good friendship should be something that you can have and maintain for your whole life and care about someone and love them at all times The Bible says in Proverbs 18 a man that hath friends must show himself friendly and there's a friend that sticketh closer than a brother We want to be that friend that can stick closer to you than a brother because family should be pretty tight as it is I know for myself personally if I had a problem I could turn to my physical brothers and they would help me out because they're my family and my family members can help me out even when they disagree with me and look there are family members I have that disagree with me believe it or not I have family members that don't agree with me just me right I am one of like two independent fundamental Baptists in my family so you can imagine there's people who disagree with me but you know what my family because I have a good family will help me in my time of need but you know what a good friend will be even closer than a brother my family will help me because they have to because they're my family but a good friend will help you because they want to because you're their friend hopefully that makes sense but I mean this is what we're seeing here so it's good to have good friends good to have a friend that's going to stick closer to you than a brother the Bible says in Proverbs 27 look at verse 17 iron sharpened with iron so a man sharpened with the countenance of his friend and the countenance is their face right so you're able you're able to have an impact on your friends demeanor on their outlook and you know you ought to be able to help improve and make your friends lives better and I know we often hear this as like well we'll improve each other yes we absolutely should iron sharpens iron and you've got two iron together great let's sharpen the countenance of each other and be better off both of us as a result of that friendship go up in the chapter to verse number five a friend loveth at all times a friend there's a friend that sticketh closer than a brother but I'm just going to tell you this much and we'll close on this understand that when you do have a true friend and someone that really cares about you if they really care about you occasionally you may hear things from your friend that you don't want to hear and that's because they're your friend I said earlier I consider you all my church members here my friends you may hear me preach things and say things that you feel like oh man I can't believe Pastor Burns is saying that I mean that must just be right about me and man he's really hitting that hard or whatever it's because I love you and care about you if it is directed at you intentionally or consciously or anything like that I'll tell you this much often times probably way more often than not it's not intentional because I usually don't know what you think I might know if I'm preaching a certain way if I'm preaching something out of the Bible if it fits it's just because God's word encompasses everything and that there's nothing no temptation taking you but such as is common to man and that when we start going through Scripture and I start preaching on things in the Bible something's going to apply to you because you're a human being and you're not perfect it's not because I have hidden information and I know things and I'm following you and watching you or whatever right I have no idea usually occasionally I might see something or know something and I'll preach a sermon on it right I'm not saying that doesn't happen of course that happens of course it does and I'm not ashamed of that either but I'm actually going to tell you the reason why I preach what I preach is not to to tear you down it's to preach the Bible the word of God and something that I think you need to hear and no it's not always pleasant but if it's needful the person who loves you is going to give you what you need and not just what you want and not just tickle your ears and not just try to to you know make you feel better by telling you things that are not going to help you the person who cares about you is going to try to help you and that true friend that you have they may say things that offend you but take the time to take a step back and let your emotions go away for a minute and think about what happens if you have a friend that says something to you like man that was really offensive I can't believe that person said that to me take a step back and think about it and think about that person and ask yourself why are they telling me is it because they hate me or are they actually trying to help me if what they told me is something that's straight out of the Bible and it fits and applies to me I'll tell you right now it's not because they hate you you're not going to share the word of God with someone and godly wisdom and godly counsel if they hate you if they hate you they'll do the exact opposite they won't want you to do what the Bible says look at verse number five the Bible says open rebuke is better than secret love faithful are the wounds of a friend but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful it may feel like a friend is wounding you sometimes but you know what it could be faithful if you have a faithful friend who's just looking out for you but you know what you better watch out because if you're just looking for someone who's going to give you all the kisses and all the love and all the everything positive positive positive oh you can never do anything wrong because you know what there's plenty of people out there that do that it doesn't matter how wicked some people live you'll have people that are supporting you and everything else and putting up the likes on Facebook and oh you go girl and everything else and you don't need that guy in your life and encouraging you to just commit all manner of sin and you just keep on living the way you are there's nothing wrong with that at all you just keep doing that watch out people give bad advice and bad counsel all the time they may be your enemies and not even know it that's entirely possible also because people who are giving you counsel against the word of God they're not really your friend the full soul loathes the honeycomb but to the hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet verse 8 as a bird that wandereth from her nest so is a man that wandereth from his place ointment and perfume rejoice the heart so that the sweetness of a man's friend by hearty counsel thy 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 and again just showing the importance of having a friend having a good friend nearby that you can trust in don't forsake your friends don't just treat them like nothing look you want to keep your friends right you want to have good friends if you want to keep them you're going to have to keep a relationship don't forsake them and in their time of need don't just ditch out on them be there for your friends we need to be looking to make good friends and I would say you know people who are trying to go the right direction who want to serve God they may have problems in their life and they may have more problems than you and even someone that may have more significant problems that under other circumstances you may not want to be friends with if they have the desire and they are trying to change and they're trying to grow and they want to serve God I would say be friends with that person there's a big difference in the direction that people are headed because if they're headed the wrong direction they're just going to bring you down they're headed the right direction that's the person that you'd probably be you know the people that you want to help those are going to be the ones that you're going to have the most impact with and actually be able to help because they already want to do what's right they want to change people don't want to change you're not going to be able to help them I mean that's just the way it is I mean time and time and time again you think about people who are addicts family this just distress or an anguish over a loved one who's an addict and they want them to change and they love them and they want things to go right with them if that person doesn't want to change it doesn't matter what you do you're not going to help them they're going to have to need to want to do that they're going to have to want to go the right way to some degree now you can try to persuade them to want to do right but you can't be spending all your time and making it your best friend either or going out and hanging out with them at the at the crack house and whatever you know I mean come on folks we got to draw a line I think the line should at least be at the crack house right all right obviously I'm being a little facetious there not saying you should not draw a line there but think about your friends all right think about who you are spending your time with and who has that influence in your life and you know parents look out for your children right it's important you don't want to you may be godly and righteous and teaching them a lot of good things but then they could have this other influence in their life just talking in their ear that could you know still lead them down a bad path and I didn't go into this at all and I'm already way over time but be careful with things online too and social media and influences that are out there with your children and friendships that people make that you can't see in person watch out for that you if you're a parent and you let your children have chat and whatever online and make friends with people online you you take this advice or leave it but I strongly encourage you to take it parents you better have access to every single piece of communication that goes out from your children and you better see what's coming in it's not worth having John a dab get into your son's life or your daughter's life it's not worth it it's not worth it it's too high a price to pay you have to guard your children you know I'm gonna go a lot more into that tonight so I'll leave it at that that's why I always have a word of prayer dear heavenly father Lord we thank you so much for your word we pray that you would please just help us all to to have proper discernment in choosing us out friends and who we're gonna let into our lives dear Lord I pray that you please help us to obviously be a blessing to other people and be able to help other people as much as we can but to also know what the boundary should be Lord and how close we should get to people and the influences we allowed in our life God I pray that you please help us to be good influences on others that we would be strong enough in our faith and in our service to you that other people would like Jonathan wanted to be friends with David because of his good deeds and his desire to serve you dear Lord I pray that you would please bring other people into our lives that could befriend us in the same way Lord we love you we thank you so much for giving us the wisdom out of your word on these matters and it's in Jesus' name we pray Amen Alright we're gonna sing one last song before we're dismissed this morning Brother Peter please lead us Alright church open up your hymnals to song number 101 Song 101 Jesus Never Fails Song 101 On the first Earthly friends made through untruth doubts and fears assail one still loves and cares for you one who will not fail Jesus Never Fails Jesus Never Fails Heaven and Earth may pass away but Jesus Never Fails Though the sky be dark and drear his son will fail just remember he is near and he will not fail Jesus Never Fails Jesus Never Fails Heaven and Earth may pass away but Jesus Never Fails On the last in lies dark and bitter love will still prevail Trust is everlasting Jesus will not fail Jesus Never Fails Jesus Never Fails Heaven and Earth may pass away but Jesus Never Fails Amen church great singing thank you so much for coming you guys you