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

Man, I just love proverbs, you know, if you don't, maybe if you're a little bit older and you hear a chapter like Proverbs 27 read, you know, you sit there and you, like me, I'm just, I'm just like, man, that's so true. Every single verse, you're like, that is so true. That is so true. So, I mean, even if you're younger and you don't really have experience with each one of these verses in Proverbs, you know, let me just tell you, just take it for what it says because it is true. Every single one of these statements, there's a lot of wisdom here in Proverbs, not just Proverbs 27. But Proverbs 27, of course, has a lot of things to say about friendship and that's what we're talking about for the last couple of weeks. We're going to finish up a two-part series this morning on friendship. So last week, we talked about being friendly. We talked about what it meant to not just say, you know, hey, I have a lot of friends, right? I mean, oh, how many friends do you have? How many friends do you have? I talked about last week what the Bible says about biblical friendliness. And are you a friend is really the question. And what does that mean according to the Bible, not what the world tells us it means, right? Because the world tells us something that's completely different. And that's actually what we're going to talk about this morning. We're going to talk about, you know, what the world says about friendship. And I'm going to look at three specific myths of what the world says about friendship that do not agree with what the Bible says about friendship. So like, once again, you know, as we see in many other things, according to the definition of friendship, the world leads us astray, okay? The world leads us astray. So look, coming to church here, folks, you know, you're just going to, you're going to have, how can I put this? You're going to have an easier time coming to church here, if you just realize that everything you've ever been taught is wrong. Because a lot of things that you hear preached here is going to be like, man, what? Huh? What? Well, but that's what the Bible says. So what lots of churches will do is when the Bible says something different that's against the culture of the world, lots of churches just won't talk about those things, because they don't want to offend the people in the chairs, right? But guess what? I don't care if I offend you. If the Bible says this, that's what we're going to talk about. All right? So you need to put yourself in the mindset that, hey, if the Bible says it, that's what it is. And it doesn't matter what you've been taught by your public school teacher, by your uncle, whoever, by your cousins, it doesn't matter, okay? If the Bible says it, we just need to accept it for truth. So just realize that most things you've been taught in this world are wrong by the world, all right? So that's what we're going to talk about this morning. We're going to talk about three myths about friendship that the world teaches where the Bible teaches something completely different. Now, don't you think that friendship is something that you would want to get right? Don't you think when you're amongst, especially when you're amongst a church of Bible-believing Christians, don't you think that you should have a biblical view of friendship? Don't you think that you should forget what the world says and you should just accept what the Bible says? Because guess what? And we're going to talk about this this evening as well. Once you get outside, it doesn't matter what you think or what you do. Once you get outside of the structure that God has set forth in the Bible, you are going to have trouble. You're going to have trouble. And it's not because I'm going to give you trouble. It's because it's just not designed to work that way. And as a Bible-believing Christian, if you don't follow the Bible, you're just going to have trouble in your life for many different reasons. Okay, so let's look at these three points that the world teaches that the Bible does not. The first one is this. Turn to Proverbs chapter 18. Proverbs chapter 18. Let's get right into it here. Proverbs chapter 18. This is going to be probably the hardest one for a lot of you to swallow this morning. All right? Look at Proverbs chapter 18 and verse number 24. The Bible says this about friendship. The Bible says, a man, and this is our verse of the week last week. A man that hath friends must show himself to be friendly. That's what we talked about last week. But now let's look at the second half of this verse where the Bible says, and there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother. Turn to Proverbs chapter 17, one verse back. You ever notice how when the Bible is talking about, especially like your siblings, it seems to be pretty hard on your siblings sometimes. You ever notice that? Look at Proverbs 17 and verse 17. I'll give you a verse example of that. A friend loveth at all times. So like remember, Proverbs is opposites, right? It tells you one thing, then it says the opposite of that is this. It says, but this is the opposite, right? So the Bible says in Proverbs 17, 17, a friend loveth at all times and a brother is born for adversity. So the first myth that I want to explain to you this morning is this myth in our life that family is always to be closer than friends. You know that just because someone is related to you means that they just need to be super close to you and they need to be just your best friend just because they're related to you. All right, that's not what the Bible teaches about family. Look and the older you get, the more you will see this play out, especially with siblings. Look, the bottom line is it's logical and there's so many examples of this in the Bible. I mean, turn to 1 Samuel chapter 17. Think of David's brothers. David had seven other brothers. David had seven other brothers. David was the youngest. Three of David's eldest brothers followed King Saul and went to war with him against the Philistines. And look at 1 Samuel chapter 17 and verse number 26 and the Bible says, and David spake to the men that stood by him saying, what shall be done? So this is where Goliath is going out and he's challenging the children of Israel and he's insulting God and he's insulting their army and he's insulting their Lord and all this. And here David comes from tending the sheep. He goes to check on his older brothers by, you know, his dad's command and he goes down and he sees Goliath, you know, insulting not only the army and the children of Israel but God himself, right? And he goes up and he starts saying some things like why, he basically is saying, why is this allowed to happen? David starts saying in verse 26 and David spake to the men that stood by him saying, what shall be done to the man that killeth this Philistine and taketh away the reproach from Israel? The reproach means the embarrassment, the insult. Look, he's just embarrassing them and they're all afraid of him, right? Nobody would go out and fight him. For who is this uncircumcised Philistine? So why was, what was David's problem? That he should defy the armies of the living God and the people answered him after this manner saying, so shall it be done to the man that killeth him. So basically the people answered him and then look at his brother's response to him. So David basically comes out and he says, why is this being allowed to happen? This guy's insulting the army and you're the army. He's talking to the army. You are the army of the living God. He's like, God, you're God's army. He's like, why, what in the world? And his brother chastises him for this, right? And Eliab, his eldest brother heard what he spake on him and Eliab's anger was kindled against David. And he said, why camest thou down hither? And with whom is thou left those few sheep in the wilderness? I know thy pride and thy naughtiness with thy heart for thou art come down that thou mightest see the battle. No, he didn't come down to see the battle. He came down. I mean, he ended up fixing the problem is what he ended up doing, but his brother was mad at him. His brother was upset at him. Think of Jacob, Jacob and Esau, turn to Genesis chapter 27 and verse 41, Genesis 27. Think of Jacob and Esau, two brothers in the Bible, right? I mean, yeah. Okay. Jacob did some things wrong. He ripped off his brother. Jacob was sneaky, but look at what it says in Genesis 27 verse 41. These are brothers. These are brothers. Let's see if a brother is born for adversity. Jacob goes and he tricks Esau out of his birthright. You know, Esau was famished and, you know, would you have given up your birthright in the hike yesterday? That's a good question. I didn't have that in my notes, but you know, I think some of you probably would have from the looks on your faces. Anyway, side note, look at Genesis 27 verse 41. And Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing wherewith his father blessed him. And Esau said in his heart, the days of mourning for my father are at hand and then I will slay my brother Jacob. So he took away his birthright and then he got the blessing as well. He tricked his dad. So look, I mean, Esau wanted to kill Jacob. He wanted to kill his own brother, all right? Think of Joseph and his brothers. Turn to Genesis 37. I mean, look, there's not, I mean, there's a lot of adversity amongst siblings in the Bible. Look at Genesis 37. Look at verse number one. Genesis 37 and verse number one. And Jacob dwelt in the land wherein his father was a stranger in the land of Canaan. These are the generations of Jacob. Joseph, being 17 years old, was feeding the flock with his brethren, with his brothers. And the lad was with the sons of Bilhah and with the sons of Zilpah, his father's wives, and Joseph brought unto his father their evil report. Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children, Jacob, because he was the son of his old age and he made him a coat of many colors. And when his brethren saw that their father loved him more than all his brethren, they hated him and could not speak peaceably unto him. All right, so look, they hated Joseph, right? His brothers hated him. They literally tried to kill him, then they sold him into slavery. I mean, look, they hated him. They hated him. They wanted to kill him. Now look, there's a lot of things here. But look, first of all, first of all, this is a perfect example, like, of why, like, you shouldn't marry multiple wives, right? Because it caused a lot of problems amongst the brothers and sisters, right? I mean, it was a, it was a terrible thing that happened. You know, there was a lot of, because there was always a favorite wife and one wife that was hated of the other wives and all this kind of stuff. There's all this contention and that transferred to the children. But the biggest thing here is, look, and let me just go off on a side note here, favoritism amongst children will destroy your children's relationship with each other. Okay? If you favor one child over the other, you say, oh, well, you know, I just like her better. I like him better because he's just better. He's a better kid. He listens better and all these types of things. When you're dead and gone, that will cause problems with those kids. I've seen this. Look, you see it in the Bible right here. I've seen this played out in real life several times in real life. So look, you must not show favoritism to your children. If you do one thing for one child, you do that for the other child as well. If you provide something for them, whether it be, you know, some sort of support or whatever, you give that to all your children. You use that as a methodology for how you're going to raise your children. You're saying, well, I can't, you know, afford to support all my children. Then you find a way where you can do it all the same for all your kids because you will cause massive problems. And look, brothers don't have to be in adversity towards each other, but it happens a lot. Okay. There's many examples of this in the Bible. I just read you a few, but you know, it will happen with your family as well. And this is a perfect example of how you could make it happen if you favor one child. You know, he loved him more than all his other brethren and they hated him. I mean, have a nice day. I mean, you just, I mean, you just ruined your children's relationship with each other. I mean, when Jacob was stood in front of Pharaoh, he, I mean, he about his life, his whole life, he said, you know, he's got all these kids that are fighting and they're going off and doing all these stupid things. And he's just like, all the days of my life have been evil, you know? So be careful that you don't favor your children. That's just a side note. All right. You don't, let's get back to friendship versus family. You don't choose your family. Hey, that's the thing. People grow up. Here's what happens. People grow up and they grow apart. It's very, very common. Okay. Look, two huge factors of this. Let's just look at it pragmatically. Two huge factors of this is number one, who you marry, who people married, right? Go to Luke chapter 12. Marriage is a huge divider of people. Who you marry is a huge deal. Look at Luke chapter 12 and verse number 53. It's very interesting in Luke chapter 12 verse number 53, because the Bible here is talking about family being divided against each other for the cause of Christ. Okay. Let's pay attention to one of the main reasons in Luke chapter 12 verse number 53 for that division. Look at what the Bible says. The father shall be divided against the son. Okay. Father against son. The son against the father, the mother against the daughter, and the daughter against the mother. Okay. So it says literally parents are going to be separated from their children over the cause of Christ. Like a believer may have to separate from their parents or parents from their children because of Christ. Okay. Look, I mean, that's pretty big, but look what it says next, but the mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and the mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. There's the marriage problem, right? So look, you, when you get married, here's the problem. When you get married, you are to be loyal to your wife. You are to be loyal to your husband. You are to become one flesh, the Bible says. You are not to get married to your husband and still be loyal to your parents. Okay. And let me go off again. Don't be one of these people that gets married and then every time you have an argument with your husband, you call mommy. You will destroy your marriage. You will destroy your marriage. If every time you get in an argument with your wife, you call your mom and dad and tell them how terrible your wife is, you will ruin your marriage because you're betraying your wife. You betraying your husband because guess what? You and your wife will make up next week and everything will be fine and your parents will grow to hate your spouse. You keep your debates or whatever it is that you have within your marriage in your marriage. This is what the Bible says. I'm not talking about asking counsel or anything like that but don't go throwing your spouse under the bus at every chance that you get because I mean you're betraying your spouse. So look, marriage in general, getting back to the sermon, marriage divides people. It divides siblings. I mean who's ever talked about their brother-in-law that they can't believe their sister married or their sister-in-law that they can't believe. I mean it's common. People marry people that have other families that came from different situations that have different beliefs and then what happens is point number two, you raise your kids different. As you raise your kids different from your siblings, from your brothers and sisters, that will also divide you because look, you're sitting in this church, you're part of an extreme minority. Number one, you're saved. Number two, you're saved and you're in a Bible preaching church. You're like .000001% of the population. Because every single one of your brothers and sisters are not in a Bible preaching church like this and they're not going to tell you what the Bible says about raising your kids and people get pretty territorial when it comes to how you raise your kids and people get pretty bold when they think that you're not raising your kids like they think you should. So that's going to cause contention. That's going to cause division amongst. That's why the Bible talks about brothers this way because look, the Bible is pragmatic. It's how it works. Christ is going to divide people and that is going to divide families. The ideal situation is that your family would just all be completely homogeneous, meaning all the same. Don't get freaked out by the word homo. All the same. Turn to Romans 1. Just kidding. But my point is that the ideal situation, one of the goals of my life is that my children would be raised the same, that they grow up in a Bible preaching church, that they marry someone from a Bible preaching church and we do have a homogeneous family. We do have a family with all the same Bible believing culture. That's a good goal. But it doesn't exist much. So if you can accomplish that goal from yourself down, good job. That's one of the goals of this church. That's one of the goals of my goal for your family. That's my hope for your family is that no matter what situation you came from, that you could push forward into your family, into your children this same common culture. But it's possible that it might not happen and that you might have to separate from a brother or a sister. So just because they're related to you doesn't mean that it's just like friends forever. So look, typically people choose their friends by the culture that they live. You don't choose your family. This is why the Bible talks about this. So look at the second myth. Let's look at the second myth. The second myth that the world teaches that the Bible does not is this, is that friends should support you no matter what. You should stand next to your friend no matter what or you're not a good friend. Bible doesn't teach that. You're like, what? I mean, think about these guys we met out soul winning just a couple days ago. Who was I with? I think it was Brother Frank. We met these guys and they're like, just be true to yourself, man, bro. I mean, you're asking them like, what do you got to do to get to heaven? They're like, just be true to yourself and your buddies, bro. I mean, first of all, I mean, I'm really, I messed up. I told Brother Frank, I messed up. I should have stayed and talked to them longer because I wanted to get more material. I mean, there's sermons there, right? I'm sitting there and I'm just like, you know, look, it's just like, you know, these parents that they raised their kids and like, oh, oh, you know, my son's running around and he likes pink lipstick and he likes to put it on. It's just be free. It's what do you do? Oh, do we have to have to encourage him in whatever he does? What? It's not what the Bible teaches. The Bible teaches that there's a right way and a wrong way. It's not be true to yourself, bro. Look, be true to yourself, bro, and burn in hell. The Bible doesn't say be true to yourself, dude. It's not what the Bible says. The Bible says believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, don't sit there and, you know, do drugs and get high and say stupid things. That's just going to get you to hell. I mean, the Bible teaches something very specific and it's just the same with friendship. You are not to support your friends no matter what, no matter what they do. The Bible says, look, look at your Proverbs 27 verse 6. It says faithful are the wounds of a friend. I mean, it says that your friend might wound you, but it says that those wounds are faithful, right? I mean, there are times that your friends should not support you. If your friends are your friends according to the Bible, there's times when you decide that I'm going to be true to myself and what I want where my biblical friends should not support that. There's times when you shouldn't support people. If you have a brother or a sister who's doing the wrong thing, you should not support it. I mean, faithful are the wounds. It doesn't say faithful are, you know, do whatever you want, man. That's not a wound. Look, there are times if you have faithful friends that they should wound you. You see what I'm saying? Friends, first of all, shouldn't entice you to sin. Friends shouldn't support you in sin and they shouldn't entice you to sin. You know, there goes the worldly idea of your drinking buddies right there, right? I mean, look, friends, I mean, the whole idea of drinking buddies is that's not friendship. That's people supporting each other in sin. That's people validating each other in sin. How many friendships do you know that, I mean, that's all people have is friendships like that, where they just support each other in sin. That is not biblical friendship, period. I mean, not only should you not be around sin, but, you know, you don't want people, I mean, around you sinning, period. Let's think of an example in church. In church, something that happens all the time, very common in churches, especially as churches grow and get bigger, is friends, like real biblical friends, they get too comfortable with each other and they start gossiping about other people. That's a huge problem in churches. I was actually a little surprised how big of a problem it is in churches. But look, whenever you feel comfortable, here's the rule, right? Here's the measuring stick, whenever you feel comfortable enough around other people to sin in front of them, you have crossed a line. And I mean, gossip is a sin, where you're getting together with friends and the people that aren't there, you're talking trash or whatever it is, you know, that is a sin. Turn it back to Proverbs 27, look at verse number 17. And look, a real friend wouldn't entice you to engage in gossip. Somebody that's being a real friend would not entice you to engage in something like that. It goes with all sin, all right? Any friend that is trying to entice you into sinning, that is not a person that is being friendly towards you, okay? Look at Proverbs 27 and verse number 17, iron sharpeneth iron, so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend. Look, a friend should make you better, a real friend should make you better, not worse, right? Look at Proverbs 16. I mean, the Bible says people that gossip, I mean, this is why gossip is so bad. But look at Proverbs 16 and verse number 28. The Bible says this about gossip, a froward man soweth strife and a whisperer separated chief friends. Look, so the Bible says that if you have a bunch of friends that get together and you're just like gossiping and just trashing and just railing on people when you are getting together with this little circle of friends or whatever it is that you have, look, there's nothing wrong with having friends. But when you start engaging in sin like this, the Bible says you will separate friends. The Bible says you will destroy friendships. So I mean, look, it creeps in. So be aware of it. And it does a lot of damage, right? I mean, look, a friend, a friend is going to be somebody that tells you what you need to hear, not what you want to hear. Right? I mean, so if you need to hear something, you know, that's kind of hard. That's kind of tough. It's not really what you want to hear. Right? I mean, that's a friend. If you get biblical advice, that's not really what you want to hear, because many times the right road is not the easy road. Many times the biblical road is not, look, it doesn't at least appear to be, at the time especially, the easy road. It will turn out to be the best road every time. But at the time, personally, it probably doesn't look to be the easy road. So if you have somebody telling you, hey, you got to just do this, this is what the Bible says, that's a faithful friend, even if it wounds you. You see what I'm saying? So look, you're not to just support your friend, no matter what. This is what the Bible says. All right? Friends are to make friends better. Look at Proverbs 27 and verse 9. Proverbs 27 and verse number 9 from the chapter we just read. Ointment and perfume rejoice the heart, so doth the sweetness of a man's friend by hardy counsel. Hardy counsel means, look, he's probably saying something right there that's like, there's some meat in what he's saying, right? Hardy counsel. Right? Even like, you know, out hiking, when it's like, you know, I just really want to take a break. He's like, look, we just can't take a break right now. We got to keep going. We're almost there. We just got to, that's hardy counsel. Okay, that's a friend telling you that. Okay, somebody's going to tell you, sit down, cramp up, you know, just take it easy. You know, that's not a friend in situations. If you need to be told something that's not necessarily what you want to hear at the time, that's, you know, that's not hardy counsel. All right? So a friend is someone that will tell you what you need to hear, not what you want to hear. All right? Third point. The third point is this. Third point that the world teaches that the Bible does not is this, and you're going to like, you know, just brace yourself, all right? The Bible teaches that the world doesn't. The world teaches that friends are forever. You're like, what? Friends aren't forever? But we have this necklaces, bro. It's like, we're like, you know, it says BFFs. Best friends forever. We put them together, and they glows. Look, I mean, look, it's possible. It's possible that friends could last forever. I'm not saying it's not possible. Okay? But look, many times, it's not the case, because of the reason, a lot of the reasons we just talked about. But look, people change. Did you know that? People change. We talked about people get married. People have kids, right? People move away. But look, here's the thing. Especially in the Christian life, here's the big one. People go down different paths in their life. Okay? Look, you know, we're up here, and we're reading the Bible, and we're preaching the Bible, and you know, we want to get better every day. But guess what? Sometimes people take a path for the better, and sometimes people take a path that's not for the better. So what if you have two friends, and one friend takes a path for the better, because I mean, they're just reading the Bible, and they're just listening to the preaching, and they're just like, I want to get better, and better, and I want to use this one life that I have for the best. And you have one friend that's like, meh, and they just kind of go down this road that's opposite. Because look, they're both going to heaven. One person's trying to utilize this life on earth, and one person's not. It's a decision. It's a personal decision. So like, look, what if you have a friend that backslides, that gets out of church, that gets into sin? You're not just to follow them into that. So I mean, you give them counsel, right? You're going to give them some of that hearty counsel. You give them some faithful wounds. But to no avail. You say, that'll never happen. It happens. It happens all the time. Turn to 1 Corinthians chapter five. Look, it happens to people. It happens to saved people all the time. I'm sorry to report it to you. Look at 1 Corinthians chapter five and verse number 11. The Bible says, But I have written unto you not to keep company if 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 look, there's going to come a point where if you have a brother or a sister, and you've given them hearty counsel, and you've given them, you know, faithful wounds, and they keep continuing in these types of sins, look, the same model that applies to the church applies to your life. Because it says earlier in the chapter that sins like this, sin in general, a little leaven, leaveneth the whole lump. That's the model. Look, the methodology that the Bible tells us here for the church is the same for your life. You can't just have a friend that is into all this stuff and just pretend that it's not going on. At some point, the Bible says that you are not to keep company. You know what that means? You are not to hang out with them. You are not to be around them. You are not to have your family around them. But look, I mean, I've said this a million times, I'll say it again, we're not on a hair trigger to throw people out of a church, you shouldn't be in a hair trigger to throw people out of your life. But at the end of the day, if you've given hearty counsel, if you've given faithful wounds, this is the path that the Bible says. Like, man, that's harsh. This is my friend. Does it say unless there you have a necklace that's got the thing and the... No, it doesn't. Look, so this is like one of those things you probably won't hear a lot, right? This is one of those things where it's like, you know, I don't really like to hear this type of stuff. Because, you know, that's uncomfortable. That's uncomfortable to not be friends with somebody like that. I got a friend who's backslidden and they call me all the time and that's an awkward conversation to say, look, man, I just got to, you know, I've told you, I've told you, I've told you, I've told you, I just can't have you around me and my family right now when you're into this stuff, we got to separate from you. That's an awkward conversation. How many conversations have you had like that in your life? You say none? Well, you're probably going to have to have some. Because if you're saved, especially you men, if you're saved and you're looking after your family like you should, you're going to have to have conversations like this. You're like, oh, become a man. It's that simple. I've had a lot of conversations like this. It's your duty to do this to protect your family, to protect from that leaven because that leaven will leaven your family, your church, Christ's church. That's why he gives us these rules, right? So look, it's sad to think about. I mean, it's sad to think about those types of things, but look, the Bible must be our final authority and you know, that's just the bottom line, right? So look, look, conclusion. We want to be friendly, right? You want to be a good friend. That means being friendly. That means actually, look, that means, you know, let's talk about last week. That means being friendly. That means showing action, right? Showing action towards your friend that is, you know, many times sacrificial action. Think about Jonathan with David, right? We talked about Jonathan with David. Jonathan literally risked his life to help David, right? And look, Jonathan was a good friend. He risked his life for his friend. It would have been much easier to just go with the flow of leadership in his dad's leadership and shun David. It would have been much easier. But no, Jonathan showed that friendliness towards David. He gave his friend godly support and look, David returned the favor. He returned the friendliness. Even after Jonathan was dead, he adopted Jonathan's son. He showed that friendliness back. Turn to John chapter 15. And look, ultimately, you want to be a really good friend. You want to be like a super good friend. I say this out soloing all the time. I don't know how many times it's true when I say it, but, you know, that's why I always say might, right? But look at John 15 and verse number 13. The Bible says, greater love hath no man than this that a man lay down his life for his friends. So look, what Jonathan was doing was just being biblical towards David. He was ready to just sacrifice his life for his friend. I mean, are you ready to be that friendly to a friend? We would literally lay down your life for your friend. I mean, that's what the Bible says you should do, right? If you're friendly, the Bible says that. All right, so that's, I mean, that's some pretty big sacrifice right there. So if you are going to be the ultimate friend, that's what it takes to be willing to lay down your life for your friends. All right, imagine if we had a bunch of friends like that in this church, we would all just lay down our lives for each other. I mean, how awesome would that be? That's some friendliness right there. All right, now just to close, let me talk a little bit about something that, I don't know, it's just been coming up a lot. I think it's because what's been going on in the country and in the world and all this. Let me talk about this idea, this idea of loneliness, all right, because you're just constantly hearing about this now. People are just lonely, you know, everybody's locked up in their house and everyone's afraid to go anywhere and all this and people are lonely, right? So look, there's a real problem. I was actually shocked when I started looking into this, but there's a real problem, in this country at least, with people being lonely. Did you know that? I mean, it's a huge issue. Look at a recent study shows a trend. In Cigna's 2018 Loneliness Survey, listen to this, the results found that nearly 50% of Americans said that they sometimes or always felt alone. Can you imagine? 50%, half of the people in this country, when taking a survey say that they sometimes or always feel alone. That's bad. I mean, look, the world has an answer for this, by the way. The article continues and it says, inside the Brain Dynamics Laboratory at the University of Chicago, Stephanie, I can't pronounce her last name, hooks up subjects to electrodes to measure brain activity, and since May 2017, she's been conducting clinical trials seeking the answer to loneliness in a pill form. This is serious. This is someone that's trying to solve the idea of loneliness with a pill, all right? So what is the answer? Treatments such as OxyContin in conjunction with psychotherapy could help patients, the study finds. So where do I begin? First of all, you know, you just pretty much have to shun all worldly wisdom at this point. Do I need to explain, I mean, do I need to convince you anymore on that? I mean, look, folks, loneliness is a sign that something is wrong, all right? And heroin is not the answer, okay? I mean, this is a person that's probably gone to school for like at least 10 years and probably has 20 or 30 years of experience in the world of psychology or whatever, and they're like, you know what, we think that heroin will help people not be lonely. What in the world? Turn to Genesis chapter 2. Let's look at what God says. Turn to Genesis chapter 2 and verse number 18. You know what the main reason that God invented marriage? You know what the main reason that God invented marriage was? I'm gonna show you. Look at the first thing God says, and marriage is the answer, right? God says in Genesis 2, 18, He says, and the Lord God said, it is not good that the man should be alone. Look, if you're lonely, it's not good. It's not good that the man should be alone. So what's God's answer? I will make and help meet for him. He says, and he makes the woman, right? By and help meet, that doesn't mean a help mate, it means a help that is proper for him. I will make a help for him. Look, a help, so what, so what? So he won't be alone, and then he won't be lonely. You know what? Here, let me give you some personal insight. You know what? I hate being alone. I do not like being alone. I just, I mean, I'm not afraid of the dark or anything, it's just I don't like it. I don't like being alone. That's why when I go hiking, you know, there's 10 people there. I don't like going by myself. Like I like going with my kids, I like doing this. Look, the main reason that since I was like 12 years old, I wanted to get married. I wanted to get married since I was just a little kid, I can remember. I can remember like praying that God would send me a wife. I wanted to just meet someone that I could get married to, because look, here's the thing. Marriage is kind of like, hey, want to hang out forever? That's kind of what marriage is like. That's what God invented it for. It's like, hey, want to be friends forever? Like true, like, you know, necklace, we don't even need the necklaces. Right? Look, I love, I love hanging out with my wife. I love doing it. I don't know if she likes it, but I like it. And I'm in charge, so she has to go. That's right. So you say, you know, look, you need to protect that, okay? You need to protect that. What have we looked at today? Friendships grow apart, right? Friendships can grow apart. Brothers and sisters can grow apart. Can, I'm going to show you another genius thing about the Bible, about what God defines in marriage. So you say, can't husbands and wives grow apart? Yeah, they can. Should they? Not if they follow God's plan. We're going to talk about this in detail tonight. If you're married, bring your husband or wife tonight. Because we're going to talk about this in detail tonight. But here's the thing. Here's the thing. If you have two boats floating on the ocean, okay, are they going to stay together? It's kind of like friendship, right? Friends, waves, they kind of float apart. Pretty soon, maybe one boat just decides to go this way and the other one goes this way. Those are friends that just, that's not going to last forever. What are the odds of two boats floating on the ocean that, you know, are not under power? Are going to just stay together. They're not going to stay together, right? But here's the thing. That's why in marriage, one was designed to lead the other. The boats in marriage are supposed to be tied together, right? The boats are tied together because one is designed to lead the other. And one, both, but one mainly who's leading is under power. Now you have a boat that's under power and he's leading, he's tied to the other boat. Now what are the odds those boats will ever come apart? Never. So you know what? Your tie is your marriage. And the man must lead in the marriage. We're going to talk about that tonight or there will be serious consequences. The boats could float apart. And the man, that boat must be under power and it must be heading in this direction. You see? And then they will never separate. So look, there's no reason to feel alone in this life, okay? It's not what the Bible says. Friendship is a great thing, but it must be a biblical friendship. Turn to Psalm chapter 23. And you say, but man, just nobody likes me. Well, here's the thing. If nobody likes you and you can't even get people in church to be your friend, there's still good news for you. There's still good news for you. Look at Psalm chapter 23 in verse number 4. The Bible says this. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. Maybe that's where we were yesterday. Some of you probably thought that. For thou art with me. My rod and thy staff, they comfort me. Look, the Bible says here that no matter what your situation is, as a saved believer, you are never alone. Okay? You are never alone. Turn to Matthew chapter 12. Or Matthew chapter 10, I'm sorry. You are never... Look, it's kind of like... I mean, there's all this good news, right? You should keep coming to church because there's all this good news. You're part of the first resurrection, no matter what. If you're saved, you're going to rule and reign with Christ. That's really good news. I don't care what's going on in your life. I don't care what's happening at work, what's happening at home. You're going to be part of the first resurrection, no matter what. Period. Look at Matthew chapter 10. It gets even better. Say things go completely south. What's completely south? This is completely south. All right? When people are literally torturing you and killing you, things have gone completely wrong on your life on this earth. All right? But guess what? Guess what? Look at Matthew chapter 10 and verse 19. The Bible says, but when they deliver you up, take no thought or what you shall speak, for it shall be given you in that same hour what you shall speak. Even if it gets to the point on this earth where it goes as wrong as it can go, and they're literally killing you and torturing you, God says, you know what? At that point, don't even worry about speaking. I will speak for you. Period. Think about Stephen and all the martyrs in that book. Think about all the wonderful, beautiful words they looked on Stephen. They said he looked like an angel. It's because God was with him right there, and he gave him the words to say. Look, God didn't have to design it that way. It's like if somebody's killing you and they're gonna kill you. I mean, it's gonna be over in a few hours, right? You're gonna see God in a few hours. You're gonna be with Christ in a few hours. But God says, no, I will not even leave you alone for those few hours. I will be right there. And when it comes to the point where you have no physical strength and you have no control over your mind or what you're gonna say, I will take it over for you and I will give you the words for you. No matter what, God is always with us. You should never be lonely on this earth. Ever. God is always with us. Look, you should have a lot of friends. And you guys in this church, you're gonna have a lot of friends. You gals in this church, you're gonna have a lot of friends. Keep it biblical. Stay in the biblical model, but at the end of the day, if everybody hates you, God is still gonna never leave you alone. You understand? Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.