Yesterday we looked at how God guides us. Today I'd like to ask the question, does God give guidance on the friends we should have? Well I believe he does. Number one, we should be Jesus centred. What's the point in having all the friends in the world if Jesus is not our friend? If the friend of publicans and sinners is not the friend of this sinner. That's where we must start. Is Jesus my friend? Secondly, we must be friendly. Many people complain, I don't have any friends. And yet they're not very friendly people. Or as the writer of the Proverbs says, he that will have friends must show himself friendly. You often notice that in the church, don't you? People say, oh, there's no fellowship in this church. And yet they themselves never initiate it, or organize it, or seem to desire it, really. Thirdly, be careful. When you look at Proverbs, you go through it, there's warning after warning about the kinds of friends you make and also encouragements to have the right kinds of friends because, as Proverbs makes clear, you become like the people you're with. Evil communications corrupt good manners, so be careful. Fourthly, be varied. When you look at the Lord Jesus' friends, well he's a friend of sinners, so he had a kind of friendship with all sinners. But then of course he had his twelve disciples, within that there were three of them who seemed to be especially close, and then of course there was John who lay on his chest, he seemed to have a special intimacy with him. So, we should have these varied levels of friendship, being careful to try and cultivate friendships at these different levels. Then fifthly, be spiritual. Be spiritual. Make sure that especially your most intimate friendships are based on spiritual things. And of course that's never more important than in who you marry. That's why basically the Bible says, don't be unequally yoked. Don't join a spiritual person with an unspiritual person. It's just not going to work. I remember a young woman told me that she was going to marry an unconverted lad, and I said, well, the Bible forbids it. And she said, well, yes, but God has given me a peace about it. Well, whether she had peace or not, it wasn't God that gave it. And 99 times out of 100, such relationships are unhappy and often disastrous. So be spiritual. Sixthly, be character centred. In these other relationships, maybe not necessarily the closest ones, you choose friends, they might be unconverted friends, neighbours, whatever. Try and make sure you choose friends not based on how much money they have, whether they're good looking or not, whether they're fashionable or not, what colour they are, but what character do they have? Choose friends of good, noble, commendable character. Then, seventhly, be face to face in your friendships. There are some startling statistics for young people's friendships these days, like the number of friends they'll have. They say hundreds, yet most of them are Facebook friends. And when you compare the amount of time they spend on Facebook friends with face-to-face friends, it's shocking. It's hours with Facebook friends, minutes with face-to-face friends. That cannot be healthy. Remember Jesus, he chose his disciples that they might be with him. There's something about that face-to-face contact that brings a special blessing. So be face-to-face, make sure you're spending more time face-to-face. than on Facebook. Then eighthly, be patient. Be patient to wait for the right friends to come. Don't just rush in to friendships. And be patient in friendships. Patient for them to develop. And that brings us really to the ninth point, which is be forgiving. So many friendships can go so well for so long and then some incident happens and the friendship's just shattered because there isn't a seeking of and a giving of and a receiving of forgiveness. And so what's been so precious for many years is ruined. So be forgiving. No friendship's perfect, but they're worth trying to repair and put back together again. That shows forth the gospel. Then tenthly, don't make an idol of any friend and that really takes us back to the beginning again. Make sure that Jesus is your best friend and all others underneath it. If you ever put somebody above Jesus, that's not going to work. Jesus will not give his glory or his place to another. Make sure Jesus is your best friend.