is so desperately needed. 2 Samuel chapter 13. Let's stand for the reading of God's Word. 2 Samuel chapter 13, we'll read verses 1 through 4. We'll read them responsibly. It's just the introduction of a long and tragic story. One that can be a warning to us all. 2 Samuel chapter 13 verse 1, the Word of God says, And 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. 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. But Amnon had a friend, whose name was Jonadab, the son of Shimea, David's brother, and Jonadab was a very subtle man. 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. And let's pray. Lord, thank you for the warnings of Scripture as well as the encouragements of Scripture. And I pray tonight that every young person would sit up straight and pay attention, that every parent would be on high alert, that every adult would be wary of these Jonah dabs that may be in our lives. And Lord, we need your protection, we need your help. And tonight, would you just give us a lot of wisdom. Give us discernment to be able to see the world as you see it, to see through trickery. And Lord, that we would be safe from snares that Satan would set for us through people that we may even call friend. And I pray that you'd Speak to each heart tonight and may there be lasting differences in our church and in our lives because of the message tonight. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. You may be seated. There are words in the English language that are overused to the point to where they become watered down. I think of the word love. Love is a word that is so overused most people don't even know what it is anymore. Oh, I love that food. Really? You love it. Is that the right word? And I'm not trying to change how we talk. I say it, too. I'm just saying it changes the word. Oh, I love him. Why? He's so cute. Is love really the word you want to use? Oh, I love her. Why? Because she's beautiful and she's nice to me. It's the wrong word. You may be attracted to someone, you may have fond feelings for someone, but love is such a special word in the Scripture. Multiple definitions, but still such a special word and it's used so frequently and often wrongly that it becomes kind of just a watered down word when in fact It's one of the most important words in any language is the word love. For God so loved the world. And we go, why? Because you love broccoli. You love donuts. God loved me. It's a lot bigger than that. Love. I think, and I use that just by way of illustration, I think one of the most overused words in the English language is the word friend. Friend. Oh, they're my friend. Are they really? Oh, I have lots of friends. Are you sure? I have 2000 friends on Facebook. Are they really your friends? I mean, we're to the place now where people get in fights if you get unfriended or if somebody unfriends you. It's like we're ready to go to a physical tussle and have bad feelings and carry grudges because somebody digitally went click. You know, it's like, how could you do that? I don't think most of the world knows what a real friend is. And tonight, I'm not going to take the time to show you what a friend is as much as I'm going to take a few minutes and show you what a friend is not. There's a lot of people that we call friends that are actually hurting us. They're actually hurting us. They are destroying us, leading us down a wrong path, encouraging us to do wrong. And yet we fight for them and we are loyal to them because we call them friend when in fact they are not our friends at all. Let me teach a simple message to you tonight called the sabotage of so-called friends. Think about that title. The sabotage. of so-called friends. Do you know the Bible says that Satan transforms himself into an angel of light? Why? So he can deceive people. Did you know that you catch more flies with sugar than vinegar? Satan is very subtle, he's very intelligent, and he knows the best way to gain entrance into your life is not to come at you head on like an enemy, but it's to come up alongside you as a friend. And there sometimes, folks, the people we call friends are the ones who are waging the greatest and most effective war against us. and we don't even know it. Let me encourage you young people to be discerning about who you make friends with. Now make no mistake, you ought to be kind to everybody. You ought to have Christ-like love to everybody. You ought to be willing to minister to anyone and everyone. Jesus was a friend of publicans and sinners. He was friendly with them. He would interact with them. He had a relationship with them for the purpose of ministering. But he didn't go sit at the bar with them. He didn't go hang around and When they started cussing, he would start cussing. When they started telling dirty jokes, he would start telling dirty jokes. You see, a Christian friend, for the purpose of ministering, is watch this, Christian. Christian, watch this. We are supposed to be changing them! Not them changing us! And I submit to you today that if you have someone in your life that you call friend, maybe boyfriend, maybe girlfriend, maybe just friend, but they are leading you away from the Lord, they are leading you away from the scripture, they encourage you to do what you know is wrong, then I submit to you this evening that they are not your friend at all. They are a so-called friend, but the sabotage that they can reap is great. Let me warn us adults too. That's not just for kids. You can have a friend at work that's hurting you. You can have a neighbor that's hurting you. You can have someone that you spend time with in your spare time that is hurting you, drawing you away from the Lord, drawing you away from Christ, leading you down a road that's not well. And you say, well, they're my friends. Listen, I've had people ready to go to blows, raise their voice at me, and they are defending people that are destroying them. But they're my friends. I'm not going to turn my back on my friends. I'm not going to. And they can't see that those friends are sabotaging their lives. hurting them, hurting their family, hurting their marriage, hurting their very lives. And so tonight I bring you a message entitled simply, The Sabotage of So-Called Friends. This is a tragic story we read here in 2 Samuel chapter 13. David, of course, had several wives, he had several sons, many children from these wives. But he had one son named Absalom. You remember Absalom? He is mentioned there previously. And here he's mentioned in verse 13 just to say that he had a sister. And she was a very beautiful girl and her name was Tamar. David had another son named Amnon and Amnon was attracted to Tamar. He was attracted to her physically. She was a beautiful woman. He was a young man. Maybe she was kind. Maybe she was sweet. Let me just say a word to to the adults in this room. And don't worry, I'm going to be very, very ethical this evening and very general in this portion of scripture. We'll move on. But let me say in blended families, you've got to be careful. I could tell you nightmare stories of blended families. Two people get married and they have different gender children of about the same age and there's no blood relation. Nightmare stories can happen if you're not careful. Even with half-brothers and sisters, bad situations can happen if you're not careful. Let me go on to say that sometimes two kids can grow up in church together and you say, oh, they're like brother and sister. But maybe one day that changes and you don't notice. So you give them the freedom and the privacy that you would a brother and sister and bad things happen. I'm warning you. Let's receive warning. So here is Amnon. He is attracted to his sister Tamar, his half-sister. But notice the Bible uses the word loved. Amnon thought he loved her. We find out later he didn't really love her. He was attracted to her physically. And by the way, remember I said love was a very overused word? We have immorality being disguised as love. Fornication being disguised as love, adultery being disguised as, well, I love him or I love her. No, no. That is lust. The truth is Amnon lusted her. You say, how do we know? Look at verse 15. It goes on to be a terrible situation. Amnon ends up forcing his sister. Look at verse 15. Then Amnon hated her exceedingly. Why did he hate her? Oh, because he never loved her at all. The Bible says charity never fails. If you've ever loved somebody, you'll always love somebody. You see, but lust is very different. Lust will connive and it will deceive and it will disguise itself as all kinds of different things until it gets what it wants. And then everything changes. I could tell you stories of good Christian girls or good Christian boys, and they met they met a so-called boyfriend or a so-called girlfriend, and they ended up compromising their integrity and their morality only to find out that once they did, the relationship was not at all what they thought. Tamar was devastated. To the point to where the Bible says the hatred that he hated her with was greater than the love that he loved her with. How could this be? He never loved her at all. It's a terrible situation. All of this bad stuff would have never happened if Amnon hadn't had a so-called friend. The end of verse 2 says, But Amnon thought it hard for him to do anything to her. You know what? She was a good girl. She wasn't a bad girl. She was immoral. She was a good girl. And her sister, he didn't want to sin against his father. He didn't want to sin against his God. He didn't want to violate her. So he was restrained. He was vexed, but he was restraining himself. Look at verse 13. But Amnon had a friend. A friend? A friend? Remember when Judas Iscariot came to Jesus in the garden? You know what he called him? Friend. Kissed him with that Middle Eastern greeting. And Jesus says, Judas, betrayest thou me with a kiss? Is it really a friend? Coming to him with a greeting of affection, words of affection while he's betraying him. He had sold him for 30 pieces of silver, the price of a common slave. But he approached him once more as friend, so-called friend, and the sabotage of a so-called friend. You see, Amnon had a friend, look at verse 3, but Amnon had a friend whose name was Jonadab, the son of Shemiah, David's brother. So this would have been David's nephew. It would have been Amnon's cousin. So sometimes the so-called friends are people that you meet at school, sometimes they're people in your neighborhood, sometimes they're people at work, sometimes they're members of your very own family. But look what it says at the end of the verse, and Jonadab was a very subtle man. The word subtle there means conniving, means tricking, means deceitful. See, parents, you've got to be careful that when your children make friends, you've got to watch out for Jonah dabs. Well, listen to me. Let me change some cultural false teaching that the cultures taught you. Your kids might get to choose their friends, but you get to choose who they spend time with. The truth is, my mom used to say, I'm going to choose your friends. She wouldn't even say, but she was smart enough to say, listen, sometimes you make dumb decisions. And we're going to let our kids just choose who they're friends with, choose who they're going to spend all the time with every parent in this room. At some point in your children's lives, you're going to have to say, you can't hang around with him. You're going to have to say, you can't hang around with her and that they're going to scream and they're going to holler, but they're my friend. Oh, but you see Jonah dab. You got to watch it. See, watch this. He was subtle. Everybody maybe thought he was a good guy. David maybe thought Jonah dab was a good guy. Why? He was a subtle. He was a trickster. He was two faced. He could put on a face. He made everybody think he was a good guy. And watch this. Jonah dabs usually are smart enough to not get caught, but they get a bunch of other people in trouble. Amnon ends up getting killed because once Absalom figures out what he did or what Amnon did to his sister, Absalom did what you and I have meant what we would have wanted to do. He killed him. He killed him. Amnon's dead, but look further in verse 25 and you see the trickery here of Jonadab. People actually come, Absalom kills Amnon. David hears that all of his sons had been killed. And David, of course, hearing that news, goes and rends his clothes. Verse 31. But look at verse 32. And Jonadab, the son of Shemiah, David's brother, answered and said, Let not my lord suppose that they have slain all the young men, the king's sons. And for Amnon only is dead. For by the appointment of Absalom, this hath been determined from the day that he had forced his sister Tamar. Whose fault was it? Jonadab is the one that encouraged Amnon. Matter of fact, I'll show you in a minute. Jonadab taught him how to sin. Amnon's dead, Tamar's violated, Absalom is a murderer, and Jonadab's by the king's side. He's the king's friend. Oh, king, let me comfort you. Let me comfort you. Not everybody's dead. This was really Absalom's fault. A so-called friend. Hey, if you got friends like that, you don't need enemies. I hope that by the end of tonight, you're going to change your definition of friend. And if nothing else, I'm not going to positively define what a friend is, but I'm at least going to tell you what a friend's not. And hopefully you'll have enough wisdom and discernment to, from this point on, say, you know what? I may not know everything a friend is, but I know that's not one. And some of you might need to change some things. There might be a Jonadab in this room. There might be a Jonah dab in the room that you got your parents fooled. You got me fooled. You got everybody full, but you don't have God fooled. There might be an adult Jonah dab, God forbid in this room that boy, you know how to put on the show and you know how to be trickery, but you go around. So in discord and you go around this and that, Hey, God's got your number. So what am I saying tonight? Number one, don't be Jonadab. If you are, repent, get right, be a person of integrity. Number two, you might have a Jonadab in your life, and you gotta separate from that person. See, our sermons like this, they're so popular. You're so popular. Dennis doesn't have any friends, so he's like, yeah! No, I'm kidding. Dennis has a lot of friends. He's the mayor, so he's got a lot of friends. So we see in verse 3 that Jonah dabbed this so-called friend. He's subtle, he's tricky. We find in verse 4, that Jonadab draws out Amnon's heart. And by the way, Jonadabs are very good about drawing you out of yourself. Watch this. Young people, parents, adults, watch this. Jonadabs gain your trust by having you reveal some of your heart. You feel like you can trust them with your heart, but they don't take the contents of your heart and pray for you. They don't take the contents of your heart and encourage you. They don't take your worries and your pains and your fears and your distresses and the injustices of life and try to help you. They take that information and then teach you how to live in the flesh or how to violate the commandments of God or how to sin. But you feel loyal to that person because you have given a piece of your heart to them. So you make the mistake of believing that they are as loyal to you as you are now to them. It's an old con artist trick. Con artists get you to trust them. They get you to put their confidence in them, not so they can help you, but so they can take advantage of you. We see that he gets him to reveal part of himself. Look at 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, Imagine this information, imagine how private this must have been, these innermost feelings that he had for his stepsister. He reveals that. Then we find in verse 5, And Jonadab said unto him, and he goes into a long story, And Jonadab gives Amnon a plan, a play-by-play plan of how to deceive his sister, disrespect his father, and disobey God. Watch this, Amnon wasn't smart enough to come up with that on his own. Amnon didn't have the courage to do it if he thought of it on his own. But there was someone in his life that taught him how to sin and encouraged him to violate the laws of God in his own conscience. A so-called friend. Listen, if you got someone in your life that's trying to get you to violate your conscience and disobey your parents and disobey God, they're not your friend. You can mark it down. They're not your friend. Why? Because that is the sure path to destruction. We see here that Jonadab plays on entitlement. He said, Verse 4, Why art thou being the king's son, lean? He says, Look, you're entitled. You're a good kid. You're the king's son. I get so tired of hearing the same old enticements. You know what? You're good. Most of the time you can let loose once you can have one night, you can take one drink, you can take one puff. I mean, you can do something. Playing on entitlements. You're the king's son or you're a good kid. So why are you living this way? Take liberties. And Jonah dab encouraged him to disregard the authority of his parents. and to disobey God and then step by step taught him how to sin. And you know who paid for the sin? Amnon. Jonadab paid for his sin later. By the way, Jonadabs don't get away with anything. It may look like it for a while, but they don't get away with anything. But Amnon paid. He's lying in a grave. Tamar's violated. Absalom's on the run. And Jonah dabs by David's side, comforting him, pointing the finger at Absalom. What a snake. That's right. What a devilish man. And yet the world is filled with devilish men and women. Let's turn to Galatians. Book of Galatians. You doing okay out there? This will save your life if you let it. The sabotage of so-called friends. Galatians. You see, Amnon needed someone to encourage him, but also to teach him how to sin. He didn't know how to go about it. He wasn't smart enough to figure out this ingenious plan of how to get himself killed. And what you'll find in life is it's not the what that kills you, it's the who. There are a lot of sinful things in the world. But it's the person who introduces you to the sinful thing that's the real killer. It's the person who encourages you to do the sinful thing that's the real killer. It's the who we see this in Galatians. Look at Galatians chapter three, verse one. Oh, foolish Galatians, what hath bewitched you? Oh, did I read that wrong? It's not what hath bewitched you. It's who hath bewitched you. Oh, foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you that you should not obey the truth before whose eyes Jesus Christ had been evidently set forth, crucified among you? Let me say that there will be people in your life that try to bewitch you from sound doctrine. They'll try to bewitch you, they'll try to that word means charm to deceive by charms. It's almost like it's got the idea of almost casting a spell on someone. It's almost like you ever meet somebody and it's almost like their friend has some power over them. It's almost like an eerie thing that if this person says something, boy, they just do it. Why is that? It's this bewitching. It's someone who who deceives and someone who who gains the attention and the trust almost to the place like they're under a spell. And he says, who have bewitched you that you should not obey the truth? Listen, Christian friend, we've got people that should be sitting here tonight that over the last 10, 11, 12 years, they're not obeying the truth anymore. And it's not a what it's a who that's the problem. There may be someone in your life right now, and they used to come to church here. And there's a constant pull. There's a constant remark. There's a constant sneer. There's a constant hmm. There's that constant pull that makes you guess, that makes you a second guess, that makes you wonder. Oh, but that's my friend. Really? Really? The sabotage of a so-called friend. We've got people that turn their back on the truth. We've got people that used to believe the Bible that don't anymore. They used to follow God, but they don't anymore. And this happens to Christians all over. They used to be separated, but they're not anymore. They used to not drink, but now they do. They used to not smoke, but now they do. They used to not be immoral, but now they are. They used to go to church, but now they don't. What happened? It was a who. It was a who. Mark it down. It was a who. Someone that when that person was weak, when that person was struggling, when that person was confused, they were there to help them. Air quotes help them. Who has bewitched you? See, the sabotage of so-called friends, they can actually be with you and turn you against the truth. What you used to believe to be true and know to be true. Now you question or totally disregard. And it's a who. Look at Galatians, chapter five. Galatians, chapter five and verse. Seven. Ye did run well. What did hinder you? It doesn't say what does it? You did run well. Watch this. You used to be on fire for the Lord. You used to walk with God. You used to be separated. You used to be faithful to church. You used to believe the right doctrine and realize that the Galatians were literally turning from the gospel that had saved them. They were changing the way they did church. They were changing all these doctrines. They used to be a force for good and for God. And now they were hindered. The word hindered means literally stopped from forward progress. There was somebody that came in their life that stopped them from following God. And the sad thing is, is nobody can stop you from following God without your consent. You gave someone permission to come between you and the Lord and you call them friend while they're cutting you off from the vine and you as a branch will wither and die as a cut flower. Because of a who? Oh, the sabotage of a so-called friend. How much pain and agony is out in the world tonight because of so-called friends? How many drunkards? because of so-called friends, how many addicts because of so-called friends, how many, how much immorality because of so-called friends, how much pain and suffering in the world because the sabotage of so-called friends. May God give us the discernment tonight, the awareness tonight to be able to see a Jonah dab and say, you know what? I will only be around you for ministry purposes. We're not going to hang out. We're not going to go to the party. We're not going to drive around. If you want to come to church, you can come to church and sit there and let the preacher holler at you for a little bit. If you want to come to prayer meeting, you can sit there and pray and you can listen to the word of God. If you want to go out for ice cream. Not yet. We got to see some things change first. You say preacher, that's kind of harsh. Now, if you'd stop and think in your life about the so-called friends that have hurt your loved ones. The so-called friends that maybe hurt you. Maybe it would change the way we think about things. You see, it's the who, the sabotage of so-called friends. You say, what do we do? Let me just give you a couple things and we'll go to the house. Say, what do we do about these so-called friends? Turn to Proverbs, book of Proverbs chapter 13, familiar verse, but you need to look at it. Proverbs chapter 13. If you don't know these verses, mark him, write him down. You say, well, preacher, this doesn't this doesn't apply to me because I got it under control. I know so and so is really not good for me. I know. I know that I get a little bit out of hand. I know that I do wrong things when I'm around them. But but, you know, I got it under control. And you will be in a long list. You will join a very sad and tragic fraternity of those who've been sabotaged by so-called friends. That's right. The list is long. The stories are very sad. And it need not be so. Look at Proverbs chapter 13. Proverbs chapter 13 verse 20. He that walketh with wise men shall be what? Wise, but a companion of fools shall be what? Destroyed. So very simple math, folks. If you want to be wise, you spend time with wise men. If you want to be destroyed, you spend time with fools. It's very simple math. You say, oh, that doesn't apply to me. Yes, it does. And it applied to countless people before you. And if Jesus tarries, it'll apply to countless people after you. If you want to be wise, spend time with wise people. If you want to be destroyed, spend time with fools. Spend time to reject God's Word. Spend time to question God's Word. Spend time to think going to church is stupid. Spend time to think the preacher's a fool. Spend time with people that encourage you. to do wrong, that encourage you to disrespect authorities, that encourage you to violate your conscience and everything you know to be right. And you will have a surety. As sure as this is wood, as sure as you're alive, you will be destroyed. And the word destroyed here means to suddenly mar. Oh, it happened suddenly, friend. You can handle it for a while. You can do OK for a while. But the tragic thing is it comes so suddenly you will not have a choice to change because you made the choice by being a companion of fools. You sealed your fate. It's like a drunk driver thinking, well, I'll have time to stop. I'll have enough awareness to swerve. You made the decision when you got drunk and you got behind a vehicle, you sealed your fate, and maybe one trip you're okay, and maybe 20 trips you're okay, and maybe 50 trips you're okay, but your fate is sealed when you walk that path. Something bad's gonna happen. And the list goes on and on. So what do we do about the sabotage of so-called friends? Number one, don't spend time with so-called friends. Don't do it. Watch this. One of the hardest things you're gonna have to do in your life is say to someone that you love with all your heart, I'm sorry, but we can't spend time together because I do bad things around you. When I'm around you, for some reason, my defenses go down, I let my defenses down and I do stupid stuff. And you've got to look at people in your life if you're going to grow. You've got to just change your crowd. You say, well, I'm not going to change my crowd because they're my friends. Oh, so now we're back to the loyalty. Now we're back to you're going to fight over how what a good friend they are. You're going to fight over how loyal they are as they are sabotaging your life. You'll raise your voice and yell at your parents. You'll roll your eyes at the preacher as they are destroying you. You fight for them. Oh, isn't Satan so subtle? And what do you do about the sabotage of so-called friends? Once you identify them as someone that's hurting you, someone that's not following God, someone that's pulling you away from God, someone that encourages you to do wrong, someone that you do wrong around, for some reason your defenses are down, someone that leads you into temptation, you just got to say, look, I'm not going that direction. And you've got to understand, it's not you turning your back on them. It's you turning toward the cross and they don't want to come. It's not a matter of disloyalty. It's a matter of, look, I've got a Savior. I've got a new path. I've got to follow Him. And I want you to come with me. But if you're not coming, I'm going this way. I've decided to follow Jesus, no turning back. Though none go with me, still I will follow. No turning back, no turning back. that we don't spend time with so-called friends only for ministry purposes. I could tell you story after story after story. My mind gets dirty and filthy just thinking of the the horribleness that has happened because of the craziness that I'm telling you about. And listen, friend, you're not strong enough. You're not wise enough. You're not tough enough. You're not mature enough. You're not old enough. You're not spiritual enough. Don't spend time with foolish people. Don't spend time with so-called friends and say, what do we do? Don't spend time with so-called friends. Let's look at Psalm chapter one, a couple of good instructions here. And I know, you know, but I want you to look at it. Go ahead and look at I'm preaching to the choir tonight, but I'm going to say that this message will save somebody's life tonight. It'll save somebody's future tonight. If you remember this. Maybe you can teach your children or you can teach your grandchildren or you can teach it in a Sunday school class, you'll save somebody's life from a world of hurt. Look at Psalm chapter 1 verse 1. Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. This gives us three good instructions. What do we do about the sabotage of so-called friends? Number two, don't follow the counsel of so-called friends. Stop listening to people that aren't any smarter than you. Stop listening to people that aren't wiser than you. Stop listening to people that are older than you. Stop listening to people who are subtle and they're tricky, but they have no wisdom. All they can do is teach you how to be subtle and tricky and deceitful and sinful. That's all they've got. You can't speak the things you've seen and heard. Don't take counsel from so-called friends. Stop listening to them. Well, here's what I think you should do. I don't remember asking you. And there's a reason I didn't ask you. You checked your life lately? You ever talk to yourself like that? It's like... Pick some godly people in this room. Pick somebody that's got some wisdom. Listen, you want every person in this room ought to have three counselors. One ought to be your parents. Second ought to be your preacher. Third ought to be some mature, godly person that you have no doubt in your mind walks with God. Stop looking for people to rubber stamp your opinions. Most people go to go get counsel because they want their opinion to come out of my mouth. Most people have friends because, oh, that's my opinion coming out of your mouth. Oh, I like that because that's my opinion coming out. No, you need people in your life that are going to tell you the truth when you're wrong. Boy, this is good stuff. Don't follow the counsel of so-called friends. We see here in verse 2, don't hang out with so-called friends. Stop spending time with sinners. The Bible says, nor standeth in the way of sinners. Listen, it's very simple. If you don't want to drink, don't be around people that are drinking. If you don't want to smoke pot, don't be around people that are smoking pot. If you don't want to do drugs, don't be around people that are doing drugs. If you don't want to be immoral, don't go places where people are being immoral. Don't hang around people that are being immoral. If you don't want to cuss, stop hanging around people that cuss or think it's acceptable to cuss. It's very simple. Choose people in your life that if you slip, they say, what are you doing? Stop that. When Brother Pass and I are together, when he starts cussing, I rebuke him. You gotta clean that mouth up. You need people who are honest enough to say, look, you're going the wrong way. We don't do that here. Listen, I told the young people today, we're pushing the reset button, looking forward to a great year. Today we talked about in Sunday school, if we're going to know how to please God, we also got to know what God hates. We talked about the seven things that God hates in Proverbs chapter six. Listen, it's very simple. We're not going to do what God hates. It's never going to be acceptable. It's not going to happen. And the way that happens, like I taught the church recently, is the church isn't pure because the preacher only preaches a message, although that's an important part. The church stays pure when you believe it and somebody next to you opens their mouth and you say, stop that. What are you doing? We don't do that. They say, oh, I was at the bar the other day. And you say, why would you go there? That's not what Christians ought to hang out. You say, oh, I saw this movie the other day, but what were you doing watching that? That's got bad stuff in it. Curse words and immorality and all this kind of stuff. Why would you do that? You see, but. The church isn't pure simply because the preacher preaches. The church is pure because you are the church and you help police one another, not as Gestapo, but as an encouragement. That's why Hebrews chapter 10 says that we are to love one another and provoke one another to love and to good works. And coming to church helps us hold fast our profession. Why? Because we encourage one another and provoke one another to love and to good works. We don't need a bunch of spiritual policemen walking around saying, I gotcha. I gotcha. That's the spirit of the accuser, but we need brothers and sisters that love each other and say, hey, man, that's not what Christians do. Hey, we don't we don't talk about that and we don't go there. What do we do with these so-called friends? We don't spend time with them. We don't follow the counsel of so-called friends. Number three, we don't hang out with so-called friends. We don't stand in the way of sinners. Number four, we don't join in the judgmental attitude of so-called friends. The Bible says, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. What's the seat of the scornful? It's a throne. It's a judgment seat. People sit down and everybody that walks by, here's what I think. Here's what they ought to do. Ah, here's what they ought to do over there. Like, we're the fount of all human wisdom. I was talking to a parent yesterday, and they got young kids, and they thought, they said, you know, I was an expert on child rearing before. I had my own kids. I said, weren't we all? They said, I used to walk through the aisles at the store, and some kid would be screaming because they didn't have a piece of candy and throwing a fit. And they said, look at that kid. If I was that kid's parents, they need to do this and that. My kid will never. And they said, here I am in the middle of the aisle, my kids screaming, throwing a fit, I'm dragging them out, you know, and people think I'm killing them and murderizing them and all this kind of stuff. You see, folks, it's easy to look at someone else's position and just start making judgments. We all not do that. Don't do that with each other. Don't do that with each other. Don't sit in the seat of the scornful so-called friends will have a judgmental attitude. You ladies don't don't be judging what everybody's wearing when they walk in. Oh, look at her makeup. Look at those earrings. Look what they're wearing. You men don't don't be judging everything. Oh, he does this for work and he does that. Don't do that. Have the spirit of Christ. This is a safe place. This is a safe place to worship. People ought to walk in the doors and rightly expect to be loved and accepted in the name of God. We love them where they're at, but we don't. We love them too much to let them stay there. We're going to do the work of God. Amen. What do we do about these so-called friends? Let me just show you a portion of scripture and you can study it later. Turn to Proverbs chapter one as we finish Proverbs chapter one. The sabotage of so-called friends. Don't spend time with so-called friends. Don't follow the counsel of so-called friends. Don't hang out with so-called friends. Don't join in the judgmental attitude of so-called friends. Number five, beware of the enticements of so-called friends. Look at Proverbs 1, and you can study this by yourself. Verse 10, I've got a little outline in my Bible. I called the seven seductions of sinners. These are things that sinners say. These are the enticements that sinners use. Look at verse 10. My son of sinners enticed the consent thou not. Basically, if someone tries to get you to do wrong, say no. Just say no. You say, well, it's hard. Say no anyway. Well, what are they going to think? Say no anyway. There's going to be places where you are. You might walk in and say, oh, I can't be here and walk out. And that's okay. There might be people that you're around where you say, you know what? I can't stay. And that's okay. There might be things you turn on the TV and you say, you know what? I can't watch this. And you turn it off. There might be conversations you start and you say, excuse me, I can't finish this conversation. We don't live in a perfect world. We're surrounded by sin. We have to learn to say no. The world, the flesh, and the devil are going to entice you, try to draw you, seduce you to do wrong. What are the things they say? Number one, verse 11, if they say, come with us, what do they say? Be a part of us, be a part of our group. Incredibly powerful motivation. People feel alone, they feel lonely. Well, be a part of us. I'd rather be lonely with God than be around a group of people serving the devil. And if you're gonna serve God, you're gonna have to make that decision. Look what he says next, come with us, let us lay wait for blood. Hey, we're gonna get some people. We got some plans. We're going to get some people. We might attack them verbally. We might attack them physically. We might attack their character, but they're laying in wait. They got a plan. They always find things to do. Come with us. Why? Because we got some stuff to do. Come with us as we smoke. Come with us as we cuss. Come with us as we're immoral. Come with us. They've always got a plan. In this case, they're laying wait for blood. They're going to get somebody. Look at number three. Let us lurk privily for the innocent without a cause. See, they're always lurking in the shadows. They love to be in the dark. They don't want their things known because Jonah dabs want to be able to stand by David and when everything else is and everything's falling down, they want to be able to stand by David and be well thought of. And so everything's done in the dark. We got to shine the light on them. Look, it says verse 12, let us swallow them up. Verse 13, we shall find precious substance, there's promises made, we'll find pleasure, we'll find happiness, we'll find our own way, we'll be somebody, we'll do some things. The end of the verse, we shall fill our houses with spoil. It's gonna be a lot of gain from being with us. Verse seven, cast in thy lot among us, let us all have one person. See, they want you to own them, they want you to join them, they want you to be a part of their group. Because once you join them, now you are fighting not only with them, but for them. It's always amazing to me how decent people will fight and claw for people that are destroying them, as we've talked about. But their ownership. So what does the Bible say? The seven solutions of saints. Look at verse 15. My son, walk not thou in the way with them. Stop taking steps with them. Walking is simply taking repeated steps. Stop taking repeated steps down their road. Verse two, refrain thy foot from their path. So not only stop walking with them, but don't even be in their path. Look, I'm not going that direction. I'm not going to go down that road. Number three, for their feet run to evil and make haste to shed blood. We understand that the saint says, listen, I know where that road leads. I know where that road's going. I'm not going that direction. Look at verse four, surely in vain the net is spread in the sight of any bird. See, this is the prudent one that says, this is I see what's going to happen to you. I see the destruction. I'm not going to go that way. Look at verse. Five, and they lay wait for their own blood, they look privileged for their own lives. The saint understands through wisdom that whatever evil they're trying to do to others will eventually come back upon themselves. If they lay a trap for somebody else, it's eventually they're going to get caught in their own trap. Wisdom teaches us these are all reasons I'm not going with you. Reasons I'm not going to be enticed. I'm not going down that road. Look at number 7 wisdom. I look at verse number 19 number 6. We see so are the ways of everyone that is greedy of gain which take the way the life of the owners there have watched this. The wise person knows I'm not going to be enticed to go down that road because it's greed. Watch this. What is rebellion? I want to take authority before it's bestowed upon me. What is thievery? I'm going to take somebody else's stuff before I earn it. What is immorality? But I'm going to be immoral with you before I get married. I'm going to take it before the time. Most sin is I'm going to take it before it's mine. It's not mine, but I'm going to take it. It's greed. It's lust. You know what? You'll be far better off if you just wait and bide your time and follow God. God will give you so many more blessings than those sinners will receive in a lifetime. I'm turning 40 this year, and by the grace of God, I've had more blessings bestowed upon me than I deserve in five lifetimes. I look at the family of my father and my mother and how they lived and how they grew up. I look at my extended family. I've had the blessings of five lifetimes and I'm only 40. But there were a lot of times, friend, a lot of lonely times when I said, I'm not going with you. I'm not going to do that. I'm not going there. I'd rather walk alone with God. Then walk down that path. In sin. Boy, God's so good. Look at verse 20 number 7 wisdom crieth without you see the the Saint has his ear open to wisdom and wisdom teaches us wisdom is a constant companion. The oldest person in this room wisdom is still speaking to you and you are still learning every day to be more wise because God has so much to teach us. And the person who walks the path of righteousness isn't listening to so-called friends. They've got their ear open to wisdom. I am so sick and tired of watching people get destroyed by people they call friends. I'm so tired of it. So sick and tired of watching people get pulled off of God's path by Jonadabs and Jonadabettes. I pray tonight that God would give us discernment. This sermon tonight is not necessarily to fix anything. But it is a warning that I pray will echo through your ears for the rest of your life. The sabotage. Of so-called friends. Father, we come to you and we just ask that you would bless us. Teach us thy book, help us to learn it, help us to know it. So many other things could have been said tonight. I pray that you would just finish the lesson and may we always have our ears open to wisdom. Heads about eyes are closed. I wonder if there's a Jonah dab under the sound of my voice. Maybe you're enticing people that you say, well, I don't I don't encourage him. I don't make anybody do wrong. Oh, but your encouragement is there. The encouragement of your example, the encouragement of your voice, the encouragement of your actions. If there's a Jonah dab under the sound of my voice, I pray that tonight you'd get right with God. Maybe get saved. Maybe decide to give your life to God. I pray that everybody right now would take 30 seconds, take 30 seconds and say God, is there a Jonah dab in my life? Do I have so called friends in my life that are encouraging me that are hurting me and you might love him with all your heart? You might be so loyal to them and have such good feelings for them, but the truth is they are hurting you. And you've got a choice to make. Are you going to choose Christ? Are you going to choose your so-called friends? I encourage you to choose Christ tonight. Heads are bowed, eyes are closed, let's stand. The altar is open for anything you want to pray about, maybe the message, maybe something unrelated, whatever's on your heart. We open the altar as the piano plays, the altar