Father, we are just so very thankful for everything you've given us, everything you've blessed us in your son Jesus. We just ask that as we look at this text, you would help us, you would help us become the type of friends that we need to be and that we would seek to honor and glorify you by edifying our brothers and sisters around us, having this brotherly love for one another. We just so very much thank you for what you're doing in our lives because of the gospel and because of the spirit that's working on our hearts. We just thank you and love you for everything. In your son's name, amen. So as I was thinking about this text in Proverbs chapter 27, we're gonna be in verses one through 10, I had a couple thoughts. First is just this. As I was thinking about my past and when I was younger and some of the ways that I acted towards those whom I called friends was really bad. And I burned a lot of bridges. in my youth. And I've tried to repair some of them. Some of them I really worked hard. And I'll be honest, once you burn that bridge, you can't build another one. Yeah, a friend lost, that's a tough thing to lose a friend and to know that you had a part to play in that burning of a bridge is really tough. Sometimes you miss that person and you realize, well, that's your own fault there, kid, for being selfish. Not saying that only one person ruins a friendship, but I just know on my part. So I look at this text and I go, yeah, no, I should have done that. Yeah, no, I should have done that. Yeah, no, I should have done that. So there's a sense of remorse, there's a sense of conviction, there's a sense of... yeah, I need to be a better friend. Another thing that's really interesting about this text as I was going through it and one of the thoughts that came through my head is this, is I am just so very thankful that there are times that the Lord has rescued me from those who called themselves friends and they weren't friends, right? So there's that other aspect too of it was good that I distanced myself from some people because some people They were not good for me. They were not good for my spiritual life. And this text reminds us of, yeah, sometimes there needs to be some distance between you and some people because they're not really friends. One of the other things, too, that I thought about as I was going through this is I thought, you know, this is something that we normally talk about when we talk to kids, making friends, keeping friends, being a good friend, being friendly. We normally relegate this subject to child Sunday school. And we as adults say, well, we need to deal with some of the weightier aspects of life. Friendship, that's a juvenile subject. And as I was looking at this, I thought, you know what? No, it's not. This is for us adults, too, about how to be a good friend. What does the Bible say about being a godly friend to one another? And how do we develop friendships? And what does that look like? What does that look like for believers to become friends with one another? And so this morning we're gonna look at some quality traits of being a biblical friend. And this morning I just wanna point out four quality traits of being a biblical friend. The first we're gonna see in the first two verses of chapter 27, we're gonna see that the first quality trait is humility. If you wanna be a good friend, you wanna be a good biblical friend, the kind that God calls, it's gotta start with humility. The second thing is found in verses three through four is You gotta be discerning. You gotta be really discerning with who you share confidence with, who you ask advice for, who you go to find comfort in the midst of a bad situation, that person that you call in the middle of the night when you get bad news. You need to be really careful. You need to be really careful who you pick for that person. Another thing that we're gonna see in verses five through seven which is, to be honest, probably the most difficult part about a friendship is we have to be teachable. God has placed friends in our lives to teach us lots of stuff, and we have to be teachable. And then lastly, we're gonna see that we have to be faithful, faithful friends. So let's first look at this first one, found in verses one through two of Proverbs chapter 27. The first quality of a good friend is humility. Notice what Solomon says here. He says, do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring. Let another praise you and not your own mouth, a stranger and not your own lips. So notice in verse one, This command, literally, do not brag. Don't praise yourself. Don't sing your own praises. Don't have this sense of self-promotion, right? So don't boast. And notice, it says, don't boast about tomorrow. So this goes beyond just a sense of arrogance. of just saying, look at me, look how great I am, look how good I am. This is boasting about something that hasn't happened yet. So just think about that. Think about what that means to boast about your accomplishment of what's going to happen tomorrow. You have no clue, but you think you do. So first of all, think of the arrogance that a mere human, that we can say this is what's going to happen tomorrow. and I know it for sure, and look how great I am at guessing. No, we're not. We don't have that ability. Only God has the ability to shape the future and know what the future will bring. We do not as humans. So this is a extreme narcissism. And he says, for you to not know what a day may bring, do you know what's gonna happen this afternoon? I don't. I mean, I have plans, and I think things will happen, I don't know. I mean, lots of things could happen this afternoon, right? Lots of things could happen in our life that we didn't expect to have happen. And so to boast about tomorrow when I don't even know what the rest of the day is going to hold? Man, that's really sad. Now you say, well Caleb, how do we, why do you say this is part of friendship? This seems to be something that deals with a person's arrogance. It's interesting in the book of James, James almost quotes verbatim this particular proverb. And he tells the people, do not be arrogant and do not boast about tomorrow because your life is a vapor. And then it goes on, and you see later on in that chapter how it appears that there are believers who are boasting about tomorrow, and they are employing other people who are attending to church, coming to church, and they're not paying them. And so this arrogance seems to seep into all aspects of life, and you turn out to be a terrible friend. Paul had to deal with a lot of churches, and I think he had to deal with the Church of Corinth, and my opinion, one of the major issues with the Church of Corinth was their arrogance. And so at the very beginning of his letter in 1 Corinthians, what does he say? Well, let's go there, 1 Corinthians chapter one. Notice what he's, he's dealing with a group of people that, they think they're awesome. They would call themselves the awesome church, I guarantee it. If they had to name themselves, they would think of themselves as pretty highly. And so the apostle Paul, I think, identifies this problem early on and says, your problem is you really, really like yourself and you think you are better, you're better. And so Paul brings them back to reality. And notice in verse 26 of chapter one, he says, for consider your calling, brothers, Consider that calling. Here, when he says consider your calling, I understand this as consider the fact of what we've been called to as believers. Consider the ministries that the Lord's given to us as believers. Consider what he's called us to do for one another. Consider that. Every single believer is called. Every single believer is here for a reason and placed into Christ. So consider that. Think of that. Think of the calling. And then he says, not many of you were wise according to worldly standards. So Corinth wasn't filled with a whole bunch of brainiacs. And he says, and not many were powerful, and not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise. God chose what is the weak in the world to shame the things which are strong. God has chosen the low and debased in the world, even things that are not, to bring nothing to things that are. So you see, Paul says, consider your calling. Realize who you were before you knew Jesus. God didn't pick you, the NFL draft's coming up. None of us were on the slate for number one overall draft pick. So it's not like God's up there with a draft board going, man, if I could just get Caleb Hilbert on my team, we'll win the Super Bowl. Nope. In fact, this passage says the complete opposite. He chose the worst, right? The dumbest. He chose those who have nothing to offer. Nothing to offer. Well, the question is why? Why does he choose the people that have nothing to offer, that can bring nothing, that bring nothing to the equation? Because notice what he says next. So that no human being might boast in the presence of God. Now, we might be able to boast amongst ourselves, doesn't really mean much. But to stand before God and to boast? Nope. Why? Because consider your calling. No one in this room is a first round draft pick. But God chose us to work his power through us. And then notice, it says, and because of him you are in Christ. This morning, Greg talked about this. Great passage that speaks about the work of God on our behalf. And I think Paul says this on purpose to this church. Because remember, this church thinks that they're great. And here, Paul is reminding them, you're not even in the church because of your own doing. You're in the church because of God's doing. You didn't want this, and he made you part of this. So this is his work in your life, consider that. Consider his work in your life, and then notice what he says. He says you're in Christ, you're in the church, you have all these blessings in Christ, and notice, to combat the foolish pride of the Corinthians, well, Jesus became to us wisdom from God, meaning that he's the source of wisdom, and anything outside of Christ isn't worth learning, right? Christ is wisdom. And notice, and righteousness. What righteousness do you have that's apart from Christ? You might have self-righteousness, and that's no good. And then notice the next thing, and sanctification. So the whole process of you being set apart, that's because of God's work, and this is what he's doing. And redemption. And notice what he says, he says, so that as it is written, let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord. Now I know when we're talking about Solomon, we're talking about the Old Testament before Christ, but I think it's a solid point throughout all of redemptive history that those who struggle with arrogance, which is everyone, doesn't fully understand the work of God done on their behalf. And any time we act out of arrogance, it's because we fundamentally misunderstand our calling, we fundamentally misunderstand the grace of God. And so any moment of weakness and foolishness of thinking that I might have caused anything that's happening in my life is because I misunderstand what God's doing. I misunderstand his work. I misunderstand his plan. I have something backwards that I truly put, the cart on the road and forgot the horse. I didn't even have the horse. So to be arrogant is to struggle with understanding the gospel. To be humble is then to understand what he's done and to see myself correctly and see myself. Now notice then verse two of Proverbs 27. kind of an interesting statement that he says here. He says, let another praise you, not your own mouth. Now this isn't, this doesn't mean that you're going around fishing for praises, right? So it's not like Greg and I are going to walk around with my guitar and his ukulele and we'll walk up to you and go, how'd you like our song? How'd you like it? Was it good? Was it good? We'll play it again until you say it was awesome. Did you like it? Did you like it? No, that's not what Solomon's doing is fishing for praise. The sense is, I'm not going to sing my own praises. And if anybody's going to talk about my character, it's going to be somebody else. Somebody else is going to vouch for me. I'm not interested in doing that. I'm not interested in singing my own praises. Even when I need to sing my own praises, I'm not going to. I'm going to let somebody else do that, right? I'm not going to give myself the opportunity of talking about how great I am. That should never be in the mind of a believer. Primarily because of the reason we just saw. What do I have worthy of boasting about? What do I have that hasn't been given to me by God? What am I apart from what other people have done and invested in me? What one thing have I done that's original? Not a lot. I mean, even when I play guitar licks, guess what? I'm borrowing that off of somebody else. So it's not like I made up something original. I'm copying somebody else who's copying somebody else. I don't think I've ever had an original thought. So what can I boast in? What do I have that hasn't been given to me by someone else? So then why would I then spend time trying to find my own glory, try to get somebody to praise me? It's just backwards. So it says, let another praise you, not from your own mouth, and a stranger, the word here for stranger, there's a little bit of a debate. Some people go, well, this is somebody that doesn't know you. That would be kind of strange then for somebody who doesn't know you to sing your own praises. I find that a little difficult. What I understand this is, It's saying somebody who's not you, right? A foreign mouth, not your own mouth, not your native mouth, a foreign mouth, somebody else. That's what I think. I think that's the image. Somebody else is saying this. So when I think about this as being a good friend and humility and the importance of humility, have you ever been around that person that just always talks about themselves? Do you really want to be around that person? Not really. And every time you tell a story, there's like that one upmanship, like, yeah, I went to this one restaurant. Oh, yeah, well, I went to this other restaurant. OK, well, I drive this car. Oh, yeah, well, I drive this car. OK, did you ever see this? Yeah, I watched all of it. And there's always this one upmanship. You never wanna be around a person like that. You don't wanna be around a person who only thinks of themselves. In fact, you would never characterize a person who thinks only of themselves as a friend. And so it's important for us as believers to think of ourselves honestly, to think about who we are and what we've received. And so when we then are around other believers, I'm not gonna sit here and talk about my accomplishments and boast in myself. Paul encouraged the church in Corinth to what? To boast in Christ. That's what I would say. I would say, you wanna be a good friend? Talk a lot about Jesus. Boast in Jesus. Boast in the accomplishments of Jesus. Make a lot of Jesus. Talk a lot of Jesus. And those who are your true friends in the Lord, they will boast in Jesus. And that's how biblical friendship's supposed to work. Our friendship is supposed to be based off of Christ and what Christ has done. Now, there's much more to be said about arrogance and humility. I think it's something that we struggle about, and plus, I wanna talk about myself more, so. No, arrogance, as I've said often, is kind of like a, like a poisoning where you don't know you're being poisoned. It's a poisoning of a mind, right? You don't know. You don't know that there's something wrong because you can't really see it because you're arrogant and you think you're doing everything right. But everybody else can see it, right? It's like that carbon monoxide poisoning. Yeah. When you get it, you don't know you have it. Everybody else definitely knows you have it, because you're saying weird stuff. You're doing weird things. And so we've got to be real careful. And praying to the Lord, and spending a lot of time in the Word, and thinking about the right things when we go to the Word, thinking about Christ, thinking about God's grace, spending time studying the text, I think is a great remedy to break up our pride and break up our boasting. Now, notice the next thing about having discernment Here, really, Solomon is warning against, just be careful, a fool will take up a lot of your time. And I think as believers, we need to be discerning about who we spend time with, who we confide in, who we go to find comfort from. Plenty of us have sought comfort with people. and asked advice of people that we should not have asked advice from. And we brought them into confidence, and we should not have brought them into confidence. And it turned out to really come back and bite us, didn't it? It really became more of a burden. So here I am. I need comfort. I need help. And I go to this one person, and then it turns out to be a bigger problem, where now I have to deal with this and the thing I'm dealing with. It just becomes bigger. So notice, notice what Solomon says. He says, stone is heavy. Yup, heavy stone is heavy. Weighs a lot, right? And then he says, sand is weighty. Right? Have you ever tried to go out and shovel a whole bunch of sand? It's weighty. Have you ever tried to plow sand? That's pretty weighty stuff, right? So stone is heavy and sand is heavy, especially wet sand, right? That's what I've learned. I come from Wyoming where if you spit, it floods. All the sand is dry. Come out here, wet sand is really heavy, right? So we get that, right? Weight, right? And it says, but a fool's provocation is heavier than them both. Oh, a fool's foolishness, right? A fool's actions, a fool's anger, a fool's wrath. When a fool gets angry, when a fool does something foolish, the burden that comes from that is heavier than the heaviest stone and heavier than the wettest sand. Man, it's hard to move big stones, isn't it? When I was in Idaho, at the church, The pastor before me and the church leadership dug a septic tank. And as they were digging, there was a boulder in the middle of the path. And one cowboy had the idea, well, let's just build the septic tank around the boulder. As you could tell, there was obvious problems after that. Well, the reason that it was so difficult was because they couldn't move it. And I think about a fool's wrath. Yeah, I'd rather have a large boulder in our septic tank and deal with septic problems any day of the week than a fool's foolishness, right? Any day of the week. Any one of us would go, yeah, yeah, give me the heavy thing that's really hard to lift, that kind of burden, above this other kind of burden, right? This other kind of burden weighs down. It weighs you down. It takes energy out of you. And then notice the next thing. It says, wrath is cruel. And anger is overflowing. So still kind of thinking of that fool's anger and that fool's wrath. Think of this. In his wrath, he's cruel. So when a fool is angry, it's not kind of an anger because of some great principle of God's word has been violated. This is a cruel anger that doesn't care what happens or what it destroys. And then notice the other image here. It says, anger is overflowing. It's like a tsunami. A fool's anger is mean and it's overwhelming. It's like this huge tidal wave that comes in. And then notice what it says. But who can stand before jealousy? It's almost kind of like, yeah, I could stand I could stand anger, but man, jealousy? That is the biggest burden of all, isn't it? Have you ever had a person that called themselves your friend and was incredibly jealous? Jealous of your time, jealous of what you did, jealous of this, jealous of that, jealous of this. You have another friend, they're super jealous, they make all those snide comments and they say all that stuff, and you just go, why, why do I even talk to them? Why, why, why? Now, be careful, friends. Believers can be jealous. Believers can have an inflated view of ourselves and seek to possess and monopolize the time of others. that we don't have the right to claim. Only God has the right to demand what somebody does and demand all of their time. I, as a human being, do not have the right to demand all of your time. I do not have the right to feel jealous that I can't possess you and have you at my beckoning call any time I want you. Tonight we're talking about the book of Philippians. Go with me to Philippians chapter two. This is just an appetizer for tonight. to try to get you guys to come on out. Just go to chapter two, verse one. Notice what Paul says here. He says, if there is any encouragement in Christ, comfort from love, any participation in the spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy of being of the same mind, having the same love, being full of cord, one mind, and do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit. Do nothing out of envy, do nothing out of jealousy, right? But in humility count others more significant than yourself. And then Paul says, let each one of you not only look out to your own interests, but the interests of others. And then notice how he then crafts this again. Notice, have this mind among yourselves, which was in Christ Jesus, who though he was in the form of God, he was God, he is God, right? Here's God, the second member of the Trinity. Did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, meaning he didn't think he was robbing glory from God by claiming to be God, because he was God. Right? He's fullness of God. So here you have God, who emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of man. So this God-man added on flesh and became a servant. And this servant attitude is that emptying of himself. And it says, becoming obedient to the point of death, even on the cross. So you think about Christ. How much jealousy did Christ have? How much sinful jealousy and envy did Christ have? None. What did he do? He left heaven and added on humanity to die on the cross for us. He was a servant. We as believers, envy and jealousy should not even be named amongst us. That should be something that we should never be accused of having. That's a deed of the flesh. And be careful. Because we still choose friends, right? We still make friends. Be careful who you bring into your confidence. Be careful who you spend a lot of time around. Be careful that you don't bring in a jealous person to be your close confidant. Because it's like giving a raccoon cat food. Once you do that, they're going to want the whole cabinet. It's like giving a mouse a cookie, right? You give a mouse a cookie, he's gonna want a glass of milk, and if he wants a glass of milk, then he's gonna want a straw, and if he's gonna want a straw, he's gonna want books to stand to drink out of the straw, and when he's done that, then he's gonna want a napkin, right? That's what a jealous person does, it's like a consuming fire, and it brings, and it brings, and it brings, and it brings, and it brings. Be careful, be careful, that's a waste of time. But also, I want us to remember this other thing. Yes, be careful who you bring into confidence, but don't be so egotistical, and don't be so fleshly-minded to say, now that person is beyond the gospel, or that this person is beyond changing. We have to believe that there's redemption in Christ, right? Because we used to be this. We used to be these people. And what happened because of the gospel? We're changed when we placed our faith in the personal work of Jesus Christ. I have to believe that there has to be change. And so we have to juggle this. I have to be careful how close I bring this person in, but not so close-minded that I say there's no hope for this person. The gospel changes anybody and changes everybody. This is what God does. Takes people from fleshly, depraved sinners and makes them then into the image of his son. So be careful, be careful to not completely close off all communication with a person like this. You might need to distance yourself, but that's not the same as never talking ever again. We have to be about the gospel and the power of the gospel and the power of Christ in people's lives. Now, notice this next one, verses five through seven. We have to be teachable. Notice what it says. It says, better is an open rebuke than hidden love. When I first read it, my thought was, no, it's not. I don't want to be openly rebuked. Are you kidding me? No, I don't. I don't want that. But it is true, right? When you have a godly person, a godly person who's walking by the power of the Spirit, who points out any time that we violate a scriptural principle with the purpose of our repentance and us becoming more like Christ, isn't that better than somebody who says, I'm not going to say anything to that person? I'm not going to say anything. I'm going to hide it. I'm not going to bring up sin. I'm not going to bring up this stuff. I'm not going to challenge them. That isn't love. That's not love. The hidden affection and saying, well, I just want to be their best friend. I'm not willing to tell them when they've broken God's law. That's not good. A real friend, a true friend, is not willing to shrink back from sharing God's Word, even if it convicts their friend, right? We should be willing to do this, and we should be willing to accept this. Now, we always gotta be careful because there's some people who really love to criticize for the sake of criticizing, and sometimes that's not true. But, when you have a godly person who's walking by the power of the Spirit, who is seeking seeking your embeddment, trying to edify you. And they say something that says, hey, I've noticed this. It's not good. It's not a good thing. Man, that's, what a gift somebody could give you. And we have to remember, I'm not perfect yet. I'm in Christ and I'm complete in Christ. I'm sanctified in Christ. Yes, amen, that's my positional truth. But conditionally, man, I still struggle a lot with the flesh. I have a lot of blind spots. You have a lot of blind spots. We're not perfect. We're not. We have to realize. We have to have humility to go, I'm not perfect. And I have to trust that my friends have my best interests at heart. And when they tell me something from God's word, OK. Amen. I don't like it. I'm not going to run away doing Snoopy dances. But, amen, right? This is how the Lord uses godly friends, to say, this isn't good. Now, be careful, by the way, do not take this as an open letter to just openly critique everyone around you. That's not what Solomon is saying either. But when you do, it's like what Paul says in 1 Timothy, The goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a clean conscience, right? That's where we're coming from. I'm so very thankful for the believers of this church and believers that the Lord's brought into my life that have said some pretty cutting things with the right attitude. They said some things that were a rebuke, and I needed to hear it, and they said it in the tone that I needed to hear it. I'm also thankful for the believers that said it in the wrong way, and I still needed to hear it, right? Because I'm not perfect. And sometimes I need to hear things about myself, and you need to hear things about yourself, because we're not perfect. And amen for those people that are willing to, out of love, to speak the truth in love. Amen for them. And notice the next thing that he says, verse six. Faithful are the wounds of a friend, This word for wounds is like a serious wound. This isn't just a black eye. I mean, this is like beating somebody with a stick. Those are faithful. That's a mark of true friendship, that I'm willing to say something that's not comfortable to say, and I'm going to say it, and it's going to hurt you. but I have it in the best interest, and I'm confident in you that you can hear what I'm about ready to say, and this isn't coming from a place of judgment, this is coming from a place that I want you to be more like Jesus. I'm confident that you can do that, and that our friendship and that trust has been built that we can have those types of conversations. Those are faithful wounds. And then it says, profuse are the kisses of an enemy. What an interesting thing. Normally you would say an enemy's the one that wounds and the friend's the one that kisses. But here Solomon is pointing out, no, a faithful friend is willing to say some things that are gonna hurt. An enemy doesn't want you to change. An enemy's gonna wanna use you. An enemy's gonna give you lots of praises, gonna kiss you lots, gonna kiss you lots, make it look like he's your best friend so that he can take advantage. By the way, whenever I think of verses like this, could we not help but think of Judas Iscariot, right? He kissed, he kissed Jesus, right? Rabbi kissed him like a term of endearment, then he turned around to give him off to somebody else. That's not a friend. That's not what a good friend does. So then notice verse seven. Verse seven's kind of a difficult verse. Lots of different ideas of this. My opinion is is that all of these are connected into a unit. That's one giant unit, verses one through 10. And there's several Hebrew grammarians who argue this. This is one big unit, and so it's all kind of, you have to look at these 10 verses inside of a unit, so they're connected. True, some of these things can stand on their own. True, some of these things can have multiple applications, right? So notice verse seven, it says, one who is full, loathes honey. I think this honey is connected back up to verse six with kisses, right? Something enjoyable, something that you enjoy. And the idea is that somebody, it's possible if people just come up to you constantly, constantly, constantly, and they're praising you, praising you, praising you, eventually you just go, stop it. Please just stop it. I know that's not true. I just know, and you get sick, right? Or think of this. Think about kids, when we feed kids and we come up with diets for kids and for ourselves. If we constantly eat bad things, we don't do ourselves any favor, right? And a lot of the stuff that we like is really sweet like honey, and it's not good for us. And we constantly eat, eat, eat, eat. It's not good. It doesn't result in a good thing. But then notice the next thing. It says, but to the one who is hungry, everything bitter is sweet. Well, to me, that just goes right back up to faithful are the wounds of a friend. That's bitter. That's a bitter pill to swallow when a friend tells you something that you've been doing for a long time, this open-ranked sin. There's a blind spot to you, and they come up and they say, hey, you're doing this. And you just go, that's tough. That's a tough pill to swallow. And initially, it hurts, right? Initially, it doesn't taste good. But the result of that that the Lord uses, oh, isn't that sweet? Once again, I'm gonna think of the church in Corinth. Paul said some pretty serious things in 1 Corinthians, right? Some pretty searing things in 1 Corinthians. You think about then what Paul says then in 2 Corinthians after all of that stuff that's said and all the things that happened and went down between them and how the apostle Paul and even how that church, they responded with a lot of repentance. They didn't repent of everything, but there was a lot of repentance. And Paul says, I'm thankful for that. I'm thankful for the initial punch, the initial spank, because what it brought about, it's not that I wanted to hurt you, but it was necessary to say these things in that way to bring about this result, which is sweet. There's another thing about friendship, just go with me quickly to the next verses, about faithfulness. It says, like a bird that strays from its nest, which is a dangerous thing, leaves, exposes the baby birds to all sorts of things. A bird without its nest could easily get onto a branch and easily be caught in a trap. This is a dangerous thing. So like a bird that strays from its nest is like a man who strays from his home. Lot of implications to that, right? Somebody who's so willing to cut ties, so willing to leave home, and then notice then, the next verse, it says, oil and perfume make the heart glad. They do. And the sweetness of a friend comes from his earnest counsel. So a friend who is encouraging you to live for Jesus and edifying you, isn't that sweet? That's sweet. Don't be quick to cut ties. Don't be quick to go find other friends when you find a friend that's willing to say, hey, bucko, guess what? Don't be quick to run away from that. Don't be like that dumb little bird that flies away from the nest, right, that gets caught in the trap. That's not a good thing. And then notice what he says in 10. He says, do not forsake your friend and your father's friend. It's kind of an interesting thing to think about. Don't forsake your friend. Oh yeah, you know those family friends? Don't forsake them either. It's kind of interesting, isn't it? It's kind of an interesting thing. Don't forsake family friends. And then this next part is really, really difficult. It says, and do not go to your brother's house in the day of your calamity. Many of us would go, well, where else are you supposed to go when things are bad? Right? Aren't you supposed to go to family? But I think if you take it with the first part of this proverb of don't forsake your friends, Second part about better is a neighbor who is near than a brother who is far. The idea of what I think Solomon is saying is be careful, don't lose friends, don't burn bridges, remain faithful to friends because someday you will need them. Someday you will need a large net. And it's not good for you to burn all of your bridges, then get into a bad situation caused by your sin or whatever and bring all of that problem to your family. It is good to have friends and family. It's good to have all of that. Be careful. Don't burn bridges. Remain faithful. Now you say, Caleb, why would God spend time talking about this? Why? Well, think about what the gospel does in our life. The gospel is changing us, making us more like Christ, forgiving one another. Right? Forgiveness. What does Paul also talk about with the gospel, about how we're supposed to, as much as it depends on us, be at peace with all people. You think about this command, don't forsake your friends and your father's friends. It speaks of, as a believer, I wanna do those things which make for peace. As much as it depends on me, peace. I wanna be known as the guy that forgives people of their offenses, right? That's willing to listen and not be arrogant. All of that flows into this do not forsake your friend. This is a product of what God does in the heart of a believer through the power of the Spirit. To have long, lifelong friends means there's a lot of forgiveness. means that there's a lot of fights where you have to make peace, which means you have to be willing to put up with people. You have to put up with some of the weird things that they do. And so here, Solomon says, it's better a neighbor who is near than a brother who's far away. Having a friend that's close, that's a close confidant, that's better than blood, right? almost exclusively for us as believers, if they're believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. That we can share confidence with them, we can ask for advice. This past week I was contacting my friend in Florida, his name is Jeff, and we text back and forth all the time, and this past week he's had a pretty, past couple weeks he's had a pretty rough time And so we've been talking back and forth. And any time I have a rough time, I text him. He's the first guy I text, right? Something goes wrong, he's the first one, right? And I remember one trip. I helped him move from Idaho to Florida. And I remember this one trip and helping him move. And you help a guy move. And at first, it was really exciting because you get to go on a road trip with your friend. You have to spend all that time in a car together. Isn't that exciting? And then, you know, by the end of the first day, you're kind of like, this is exciting, but not as exciting as it was when we first got into the car. And then the second day wasn't as exciting as the other day. And by the time we're down in Florida, there's like this seething, like, I want to get out of this car. He does weird stuff. He's a weird guy. This guy's so weird, get me out of this car. I'm kidding, he's a good friend. And I think back to that trip often and how that's brought us closer together and very thankful for that friendship. I'm also very thankful for the friendships that I've made here. Normally pastors don't make a lot of friends with their congregation because that doesn't always work out. Right? It doesn't work out and there's always weird stuff that happens. But I'm thankful for you. I call you friends with a smile. No insincerity whatsoever. You're my friends. You're like my family. And especially for me and Krista, we live so far from blood. It takes a long time for us to get to anybody who's related to us by blood. Guess what? We have to live out this proverb, Proverb 10, better is a neighbor who's near than a brother who's far. We literally have to live that out. And we consider you friends. We consider you as part of our friend church family. Very thankful for all of you who have said some rebuking things to me. I wasn't thankful at the moment. But I'm very thankful for those things now. Very thankful for you and your concern for my family and concern for us. And I consider you friends. Hopefully you consider us friends, our family, because we're with you forever. So you better get used to us. We're like that stinky old cheese in the garbage. That smells around for a long time. So we're there. But I'm also thankful that we can be friends not because we just happen to live in the same place. Because I know that within this congregation there's lots of differences of opinions on lots of things, right? Like we can't even agree on which football team to root for on any given Saturday. Which breaks my heart that it should be Penn State and you guys just aren't. No, but I'm very thankful that we are friends based off of Jesus Christ and the blood of Jesus. And that family that we have because of him. And I pray that we work hard to be good friends with one another and love one another. And we continue in those friendships and we deepen these friendships. That we're not willing to easily forsake each other when things get weird or hard or difficult or annoying. But by the grace of God, we'll live out the gospel and become lifelong friends with each other, encouraging one another to live for Jesus. That's my prayer. That's my heart. Hopefully that's your heart. Hopefully that's the heart of all of us who are sitting here, that we become friends. And we're friends for a long time. So may the Lord give us both the will and the ability to do all that we've heard today. Let's pray. Father, we thank you so very much for friends, and Father, even though we may not have been the best of friends in the past, we know that you are gracious, and that by the power of your Spirit that we can be friendly towards one another, and friends, and caring for one another, and praying for one another, and helping one another, and loving each other as Christ has loved us. I pray, Father, that you will help us in our struggle against the flesh, that so easily wants to tear up that unity and friendship, and that you would keep all those things, those little foxes that come into the vineyard that ruin friendship, I pray, Father, that you would keep those away, that you would help us, you would help protect us from those things, and that we would love one another as Jesus has loved us. It's based upon him and his work that we say amen.