 The sermon this morning is not directed at any one or two groups of people. I don't do that anyway, but every single person in the in the room this morning is in these three, one of these three groups. All right? So what I want you to do is ask yourself this morning when we're talking about these groups of people. I want you to ask yourself which one am I? Which group am I? Which group am I in? He's talking about three types of people. And then step two is which one should I be? Which group should I be in? I'll tell you obviously an answer to that, but I'm going to have an object lesson for the first group of people. I've been told and I'm going to give you an animal analogy this morning. I'm going to give you an animal analogy this morning, but I've been told that I should do more object lessons in the sermons. I've done a couple of them and people like on the object lessons. I'm not actually sure how the one this morning is going to turn out. I'll let you know in a couple hours, but I've been told I should do more object lessons. I'm going to give you an animal analogy this morning. I've raised a lot of animals in my life and I'm going to give you kind of a specific example with some cats. We have three cats, okay? We have three cats. And to demonstrate the first group of people, I actually brought one of our cats today. So this, now let me just tell you something right off before I start off the sermon this morning. I don't like cats. Like I really do not like cats. Now that's a true statement. My kids will tell you that. I do not like cats. This is, you can go sit down, Jacob. This is snurt. And if you don't know what snurt is, maybe the guy from Canada in the room knows what snurt is. Snurt is what we used to call in North Dakota when in the spring when the snow would melt and you would get the dirt and the snow mixed together we would call it snurt. And he's kind of a white cat, but he's not really white. He's got a lot of kind of brown in him. So we call them snurt. I just call him dirt, personally. All right? But here's the thing. I don't like cats. I do not like cats. But guess what? I like this cat. And you can probably already see why. Snurt, or as I like to call him, dirt is a very friendly cat. As a matter of fact, dirt wasn't even our cat. Dirt was a stray cat. This cat has actually made some major accomplishments in his life. Her life? Is it a boy or a girl? Ashley? Okay, don't speak in church. No, I'm just kidding. But look, this cat is an extremely friendly cat. You know, I don't like cats, but I like this one. You know, I never, there is never a time in the day of my life. There's never a day, and this is just the honest truth. There's never a day when I wake up and say, I'm going to pet a cat today. Ever. Yet, I end up petting this cat all the time because dirt is extremely friendly. Look, there's many times, look, I go out and I work on things in the yard, and you know, dirt hangs out with me. I was packing bearings on my trailer the other day, and dirt just sits there. I think he handed me a wrench at one point. He just sits there and he just is a very friendly cat. But the point is, is that dirt likes people. Dirt seeks people out. Dirt will go up to people. He will just come up to you and just, as a matter of fact, when we brought dirt to the church this morning and we put him in the office all by himself, dirt was miserable. He was in there and he was crying and crying and crying. And I can tell dirt is not really excited right now. He's shaking a little bit. But the thing is, dirt likes being around people. Look at how quiet and just calm he is sitting here. He just really likes people. And he even likes me, knowing that I don't like cats. He comes up to me and he'll just jump in my lap and all this stuff. It doesn't matter. I could be outside. He just follows me around the yard. But dirt shows himself friendly. You see where I'm going with this? You see where I'm going with this? And look, I mean, we have two other cats. And there are two other cats. Jacob, you can actually come and take dirt, if you would like. Good job, dirt. Now, I have to not touch my face for the rest of the sermon. Or the sermon will become how to deal with allergies in real time. All right, here you go. Thank you, buddy. All right. You want to never get sick or never have allergy problems? Don't ever touch your face. That's all stupid, the dirty mask on your face thing is. But we're not going there. Okay. Anyway, so we have two other cats. We have two other cats. The other cats that we have one, one cat is named. So dirt is extremely friendly. Dirt shows himself friendly all the time. He was he's so friendly that he wasn't even our cat. He was a stray cat who normally I'm just against stray cats right away. I'm just like against you if you're a stray cat. But we actually adopted him. He was so friendly because he came to us and he showed himself friendly all the time. We have another cat her his name or whatever is Nevada. And this this cat is kind of it's just he's kind of indifferent. You know, he's like he he's he's doesn't cause any trouble. He doesn't really come to you. We don't have to go to him. But he doesn't run away when you come up to him. You know, just kind of this is most people, you know, is Nevada. He's just kind of there. You know, he's not unfriendly. But he's not like super friendly, just constantly coming up to you wanting to, you know, be affectionate to people and things like that. That's not Nevada. Then we have a third cat who's just completely stuck up. I don't even know why we own this cat. Her name is Misty and she just you I mean I look at her and she runs away and like why do I buy food for you? You know, she just runs away in the morning. She won't even cut you know, she opened the door and she's like, I'll come in the house if you beg me, you know, and all this I'm like stay outside all day. I see if I care. You know, so like we have this extremely unfriendly cat and then we have this kind of just indifferent cat. Now look, I've raised a lot of animals in my life and animals fit into these three categories. Most animals are just, you know, like with sheep and cattle, you know, you will find and you talk to our cattle man in the room here, you'll find that there's some mean ones. There's some mean cows. I mean, when we were growing up, you would run into some some mean cows or when I was raising sheep, we had one ram that was super mean. You just couldn't turn your back on him or he would just like plow right into you and try to hurt you. So, you know, we always look, you know, with animals and with cows and with sheep, it was a common thing that you know, my dad and my grandpa would always say it's hereditary. If you get a bad cow or a mean cow, you have to get rid of them. You just have to get rid of them right away because they'll have they'll have mean prodigy. You know, they'll have mean, mean calves and mean, you know, children. So, I mean, part of that is it's hereditary. Most of the animals, however, weren't mean. They were just kind of indifferent. They were just kind of indifferent. They're meaning, meaning, you know, if you're mean to them or, you know, they become skittish or if you treat them badly, they will be, you know, they'll be skittish and afraid of you and things like that. But most animals are like people. If treated well, they will generally respond well to you. You know, on average, you know, you'll see that with animals just like you will see it with people. And then, and then on the other hand, with even with the cattle and the sheep, you'll find the super friendly ones. There's some that are just super friendly and the cattleman is nodding his head. He knows exactly what I'm talking about. But you know, when I think about this with the sheep, I think about we would have bottle lambs every now and then. A lamb where maybe the mom died, where the mom was not a good mom and didn't want the lamb. So, the kids had to go out and they had to become kind of the mom and they would feed the lamb with a bottle. And the cool thing about a bottle lamb is that that bottle lamb became so friendly to people that you would walk into a barn that had 180 lambs just yelling and crying everywhere, going everywhere. And you would walk into that barn and that bottle would just run straight up to you or whoever was, you know, the mom, usually it was Ashley, run straight up to you and just like hug your leg, you know, within you know, two seconds of you being in the barn. So, you will see super friendly animals like that. Ashley had a little lamb called, I still remember the name. We've had hundreds, maybe even thousands of lambs and I remember this one lamb called Snowflake. And this lamb would just follow Ashley. It didn't matter where she was. If she was anywhere in the pasture, this lamb would come sprinting across the pasture and just come right up to Ashley. And I mean, you will find super friendly animals. Then you will find most animals that fall into that category. They're just average. If you treat them well, you know, they will they will be nice. And if not, they will be, they could become mean or they could be skittish or whatever. And then you'll find mean animals. Well, guess what? People, this is the analogy. People fall into the same category. You can put people into the same categories. But here's the difference. Turn to 2 Peter chapter 2. Here's the difference. And then I'm, you know, trying to, you know, make something that you'll remember, which is good about the object lessons. But here's the thing, folks, and I hate to break it to you, but we aren't animals. We aren't animals. So what's the difference? What's the difference between us and animals? Because people that you see today, people that you talk to today, this is kind of one of the big things. You know, we're just animals. We all evolve from the same thing. We're just another, you know, we're just a higher class of animal. Wrong. That's not what the Bible says. The difference between us and animals, well, first of all, you know, we have souls. Okay, we have souls and the animals were created to serve us and to be a use for us. You know, I read, I have this app called Next Door. I'm not sure why I have it. It's mainly just to watch for weird things in the neighborhood. And somebody on Next Door just last night put on there a picture of their dog and, you know, she wrote, so and so the dog's name went to be with the Lord and I can't wait to join him. And I'm just like, what in the world? Your dog's not in heaven. Your dog's in the ground. And why would you want to die so you could go into the ground with your dog? Okay, it's just, there's, it's wrong on so many levels. It's ridiculous. Alright, look, animals don't have souls. Animals don't have souls. All dogs don't go to heaven. As a matter of fact, no dogs go to heaven. Okay, but look, it's great. Animals can be a great blessing to us, to our families. Pets are great. I mean, dirt, you know, he hands me wrenches when I'm working on things. You know, he talks, I mean, I talk to him. I don't think he's talked back to me if I start telling you that the cats are talking to me. Maybe time to find a new church. But anyway, the difference between us besides our souls is our consciousness, is, you know, our ability to reason and follow God's law. Are you there in Second Peter chapter 2? That's what makes us different than animals. Look at Second Peter chapter 2. Second Peter chapter 2, the context of the whole chapter is talking about wicked false prophets. Okay, these, these people that are wicked and they're trying to, you know, just lead God's people astray and they're doing it for greed and their own, their own purposes. Look at Second Peter chapter 2 in verse number 12. And the Bible is comparing them to animals. Look at verse number 12. The Bible says, but these, talking about these wicked people, these wicked false prophets, as natural brute beasts made to be taken and destroyed, speak evil of the things that they understand not, and shall utterly perish in their own corruption. So I'm just going to use that, those three words right there that says natural brute beasts. The difference between us and animals is because a brute means is something that's stupid, something that, that doesn't think. They just act on their own desires and it's natural for an animal or a beast to be that way. It's natural for an animal to not to just do what they feel at that moment. It's, it's a natural thing. It's a natural thing. So an animal is what an animal is. This is why, by the way, this is why, by the way, an animal can never really be trusted. And you have to understand that. One difference between me growing up in North Dakota and a lot of things that I see here in California is people worship their animals. You know, people have elevated their animals to human status. It's crazy, but an animal can never be trusted. When I grew up, if a dog ever bit, if a dog ever bit a human being or a child, the dog was destroyed immediately. People would be appalled at that today in where we live. I knew a rancher, he had a dog for 12 years, and I went over and I, I visited my neighbor and I said, where's your dog? It was a, it was a cattle dog. He was like, oh, he, he barked and growled at one of the kids, so I, I shot him. I mean, it was just like that was it. It's just a dog. I mean, it was just a dog, and look, you know, it's a, it's a pet, and we like to have pets and things like that, but it's natural for a beast to be a brute. It's a natural thing. That's the way they are. That's why animals, you know, it's their natural state. That's why they can never really be trusted. So look, that's not us though. That's not us. So as we talked about these three categories, let's get to the point of the sermon, have you decided, you know, which one you are yet? Are you, are you mean? Are you an unfriendly person by nature? Are you average? You just kind of respond to people. You take people one at a time in the way that they treat you, then that's the way you'll treat them. Or are you just an overly friendly person? Look at Proverbs chapter 18 once again, if you're still there. Look at verse 24, and let's look at what it actually says. Look at what it actually says. Now it's interesting because if you just look at each word of the Proverbs and understand each word that it's saying here, you can really learn a lot from a verse that maybe you've read a hundred times. Look at the Bible. A man that hath friends must, see that? It says you have to. It says a man that hath friends must show himself friendly. So first of all, this is something that's not like, you know, if you want to have friends, you know, maybe you should do this. It says if you want to have friends, you have to do this. It's like it is a requirement. It is a prerequisite that you are a friendly person. If you want to, what? Hath friends. Hath means have. You currently possess them. All right? If you want to currently possess friends, you must be friendly. So there's not a choice. You can be one of the three categories. You can be a mean person. You can be an average person. But if you want to hath friends, if you want to currently possess friends, the Bible here is saying you must be category three. You must be like dirt the cat. You must be a friendly person. So what does that mean? How do I do that? So look at this guy in Proverbs 18. What's he doing? What's he doing? He's the one, notice this. He's the one doing the showing. He's the one doing the showing. Think, I mean, think about this cat that I showed you. Think about this cat. Look, this cat, he was able to achieve going from stray cat that had no home to have living in the best house that a cat could live in in Fresno. I mean, that's quite an achievement, but it's it's and he convinced somebody that inherently didn't like him from the start. I mean, he walked into the yard and I'm like, I hate you. You're a stray cat. It's like immediately I did not like him. He had to change that about me. But the point is, and seriously in Proverbs chapter 18, the first point that we need to understand is if you want to have friends, you must show yourself friendly. It's not about responding to people. It's about you putting that foot first forward, showing yourself. Turn to Matthew chapter 5. Imagine if you could achieve those results. Imagine if you could achieve the results of making friends with someone who inherently at the beginning didn't even like you. Imagine meeting somebody who just, they don't even know you personally, but because of who you are, what you are, they don't even like you. Imagine if you could achieve a good result from that. Look at Matthew chapter 5. That's exactly what the Bible tells us that we're supposed to do. First of all, we're supposed to show ourselves friendly if we want to have friends. That's kind of a general rule. Look at Matthew 5 and verse 44. No good Jesus says. In verse 44, He says, But I say unto you. He says, Love your enemies. Bless them that curse you. Do good to them that hate you. And pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you. Look, you say, even your enemy? Yes, even your personal enemy. We had a whole sermon on this a few weeks ago, but here's the thing. You will find folks, you will find that there are people out there that inherently don't like you because you're a Christian. You will find that. If you're a soul winner, you know that. You know that. But that's why. Look, here's the one thing that you need to understand about Matthew chapter 5 and verse 44. This is why Jesus is saying this. People, there may be people that don't like you because you're a Christian, but guess what? Maybe people will become, will start to like you because you're a Christian. That's what Jesus is saying. Jesus is saying, Hey, there's going to be people out there that don't like you because you're a Christian. And then He's going to say, Now I'm not talking about like wicked, reprobate, horrible, you know, people. I'm talking about just people in general. They just have a bad experience or bad, you know, whatever, because maybe people weren't like Matthew 544. Maybe they had a bad experience with a Christian that wasn't someone who would love their enemies. And they're just like, You know what? You know, I grew up in this church that had these Christian people. And I mean, how many times have you met people like that? But maybe if you were this friendly person, and guess what? You showed yourself friendly. Maybe people that didn't like you because you were a Christian, maybe they would start to like you because you're a Christian. That's what Jesus is saying in Matthew chapter 5 and verse number 44. So the point is, let me ask you this, whatever category you're in, you say, you know, maybe you don't want to admit what category you're in this morning. But here's the thing, the Bible is saying in Proverbs chapter 18 and Matthew chapter 5, because guess what? If you're going to be a blessing to somebody, if you're going to love somebody, we know what the real definition of love here, right? I mean, in this church, we know what the Bible says that love is. Love isn't like, oh, this wonderful feeling where I get butterflies in my stomach. No, love is action. Love is where you do something. I'm thankful that Jesus Christ doesn't think that love is butterflies in his stomach. Butterflies in your stomach is not love. That's what everybody thinks it is. That's what the movie says it is. Don't even get me started about that. But love is action. Love is sacrifice. Love is you doing something. I'm glad that Jesus knew what love was. That love was actually action and sacrifice of you doing something for somebody else. That's what love is. So let me ask you this. If you're to even bless your enemy and love sacrifice show action towards your enemy, that means that you have to go to that person. And that's what Proverbs chapter 18 is talking about. So let me ask you this. Whatever category you think you're in this morning, do you go to people? Do you go to people or do people have to come to you? How many of you think about this? How many of you have ever had a close friend? Let's just take the just we'll just take communication as an example. How many of you have ever had a close friend who just never calls you? Think about a close friend of yours. Never calls you. Never sends you a text message. Never sends you an email. Never tries to contact you. Just a friend, a super close friend of yours that you just have to reach out to them constantly. It never happened. It never happened because guess what? That person wouldn't be considered a close friend by probably anybody because you're the one doing all the going, doing all the showing. You typically wouldn't classify somebody who doesn't want anything because you would start to think maybe this person doesn't want to have anything to do with me. That's what people would think. But you wouldn't consider somebody like that as a close friend. And you know, a lot of people might say who would even want to be friends with a person like that. So I mean, this has many different forms that could use many different examples, but Proverbs 18, the simple point I'm trying to make is talking about if you want to have friends, you must, must. It doesn't say it'll work better if. It doesn't say maybe. It says you must go to people. You must show yourself friendly. And a lot of people say, you know what? That's just not my personality. Well, then I would ask you this morning, are you a brute beast? Are you a brute beast? Are you a brute beast? I mean, can't you? I mean, do your natural tendencies control your life? Is what you have to ask yourself this morning. Turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 9. What does the Bible say? Do our natural tendencies? Because I mean, aren't people naturally, some people are naturally more outgoing than other people? I mean, wouldn't you agree with that? Wouldn't you agree that there's some people who are extroverted and some people who are introverted? I mean, most people would agree with that. But guess what? That doesn't matter. That doesn't make us different than, you know, dirt the cat and misty the cat. Misty should get her act together, but she's not a person. So she can just be a brute beast. But we're not brute beasts. Look at 1 Corinthians chapter 9. 1 Corinthians chapter 9. Look what Paul says. Paul says, but I keep, look at verse number 27. I'm sorry, verse number 27 of 1 Corinthians chapter 9. Look what Paul says. He says, but I keep under my body and what? I bring it into subjection. This is the difference between the animals right here. Paul says, he's like, I keep under my body and I bring it into subjection. Lest by any means when I preach to others, I myself should be a castaway. What Paul is saying here is he's saying, look, my flesh wants to do something sometimes and I have these natural tendencies to do things. And yeah, I mean, it's got a real application to sin. You know, I want to sin, but guess what? I bring my body into subjection. My body has a desire and wants to go sin and I say no. And I stop it. I know what the Bible says and I stop my body. He's talking about self-control here. He's talking about self-control. He's talking about not being ruled by his body. Guess what? An animal is ruled by their body. An animal is like, I'm hungry now. I'm going to get something to eat. And guess what? I mean, if your dog was hungry and you died, he would probably eat you. I mean, he's a brute beast. You're like, oh, really little phyto or whatever? Yeah. It's an animal. It's an animal. Not trying to gross the kids out or scare your dogs. Not going to eat you kids. All right. But the point is, Paul is talking about something that animals don't have. He's talking about self-control. He's talking about self-control. So all you parents out there that are just like, oh, I want to give my kids everything that I never had. Have fun. You're ruining your children. You are teaching your children to not have any self-control. In their life. You're teaching your children that if I want something, that I just, I need to have it right now. You're destroying them is what you're doing. You are literally teaching your children to become a natural brute beast. You're teaching your children if they want something, they get it. If they want something, they take it. If my body wants, has a desire or any, I mean, what a terrible way to raise your children. Have your children go without some things. Teach your children that going without things is good for them to keep under their body and bring their body into subjection. You know, I want another cookie or whatever. No, that's not good for you. You bring your body into subjection. Three-year-old. These are lessons that kids need to learn or they will just be serving their fleshly desires throughout their whole life. This is the difference between us and animals. So back to self-control. It's not about how you feel as far as showing yourself friendly. I don't want to or I don't feel that way. That doesn't matter according to the Bible. We do what the Bible says and then we will get the results that the Bible shows us. And the Bible here and the purpose of this sermon is saying if you show yourself friendly, I don't care what kind of person you are in Proverbs chapter 18, it says if you show yourself friendly, you will have friends. But it's a must. It's a requirement. Why don't people will say I can't go soul winning because I'm just shy around people. Look, that is no excuse. Look, let me tell you something. Some of the best soul winners that I know are shy people, are quiet people, are people that when you have a conversation with them, they don't do much talking. But they're some of the best soul winners I've ever met in my life because you know what? They've brought their body into subjection. They have told themselves that no matter how I feel, I am going to go to people. How could you ever bring the gospel to people like Jesus says we are all supposed to do if you're just like, I'm not that kind of person. It doesn't work. Here's what actually happens. The reason that they're so good at it is because a person that is shy and a person that is stepping outside of their personality and outside of their comfort zone, they end up being very sincere soul winners. I mean, I've thought a lot about this. I'm like, man, why, I mean, I have a good friend. I'm thinking about right now. I won't name him. But I'm just, and he's not in this church, but I'm just thinking about this person. I'm just like, he's so shy, like when you talk to him, you can barely hear him. And you hear him out soul winning and you're just like, who is this person? But the thing is, when he's out soul winning and you listen to him talking to people and giving people the gospel and reading the Bible to people, he's so sincere. It is very clear that he cares about the person that he's talking to. Because look, he's overcome something to get to that point. He has, he has soul winning despite his natural self. Does that make sense? Despite, you know, who he naturally tends to be. So you can be an incredible benefit to others. It's not Proverbs 18. It's not just about you having friends. You will end up benefiting many other people if you can change this about yourself and show yourself friendly no matter what your tendencies are. I mean, it helps other people. Soul winning, it helps people in the church. Look, if you say I'm an introvert and never want to go soul winning, it's just like, how many people are going to be hurt? How many people will never get the gospel? Turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 9 in verse number 20. 1 Corinthians chapter 9, look at verse number 20. 1 Corinthians chapter 9, you say, yeah, this was Paul though. You know, this was Paul. Like, I mean, he's got serious self-control. You know, and you know, he's just this, he's probably the best evangelist that's ever lived. Well, let's look at some more examples of Paul. Look at 1 Corinthians chapter 9 in verse number 20. Look what Paul says that he did to get the gospel out to people. He said, unto the Jews, in verse number 20, unto the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews, to them that are under the law, as under the law, that I might gain them that under the law. We say, well, Paul was a Jew. That must have been easy. That must have been easy for Paul to go to the Jews. Look at verse 21. To them that are without the law, as without the law, not being without the law to God, but under the law to Christ, that I may attain them that are without the law. Now he's talking about the Gentiles. He's talking about the Gentiles. So Paul, he's like, I could go to the Jews, or I could go to the Gentiles. He's like, I just became as them. And then he says, to the weak I became as weak, that I might gain the weak. I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some. And this I do for my own sake, so I can have a bunch of friends. This is the benefit of getting outside your comfort zone, of getting outside your natural tendencies. Look what he says in the last verse here that we're going to read. He says, and this I do for the gospel's sake, that I may be a partaker thereof, with you. He's saying, look, I go to all people, even people that I might not necessarily be super comfortable around, and I do it for the gospel's sake. I do it for the sake of their souls. I do it for the sake of them, not me. So many people, look, if you are, if you are Misty the cat, or Nevada the cat, and you can become dirt the cat, many people will benefit from that. Their souls will benefit from that. You say, but yeah, this was Paul. He's like, he wrote most of the New Testament. He's the best evangelist. I mean, nobody could outdo him. He is probably this great speaker. Turn to 2 Corinthians chapter 10. He was probably super good looking, probably had a commanding presence. I mean, that can't be me. I can't do that. I can't change who I am. This was Paul, the apostle. Look at 2 Corinthians chapter 10. Paul saying this about himself says this, about himself. In verse number 10 of 2 Corinthians chapter 10, for his letters they say, he's talking about himself. He's talking about what people say about him. He said, his letters they say are weighty and powerful. True. So this is what people say about Paul, that his letters are powerful. But this is what they say. But his bodily presence is weak, and his speech is contemptible. I mean, Paul is basically saying, look, I may write good letters. He's like, but you know, I, you know, when I'm in front of people, I'm nothing to look at. I'm, I'm no, you know, he's not some huge, physical presence. He doesn't have this commanding presence, where you can get up and, and be this motivational speaker, that's just got command of the stage, and with these great words, that he speaks. He's like, you know, he's just like, he fumbles over his words, and he's not, he's not much to, to command a, command a room. But look what he did. Look what he did in his life. But did Paul just stay home and just write letters? Because he's saying here, he's like, yeah, I'm able to write letters. You know why he's able to write letters? Because he had the Holy Spirit writing letters with him. But he's saying like, my presence is nothing impressive. So Paul just stayed home and wrote letters. No, Paul traveled all over. Paul traveled all over his part of the world to the point, you know, where they killed him for it. And he just kept going, and going to people, and going to people, and going to people. But Paul, despite all that, and he did it for the, for the gospel's sake, for the benefit of people's souls. Think about people's souls. Think about the benefit of the gospel in this world. I mean, but Proverbs 18 is saying there will be benefit to yourself too. That's the nice thing about the Bible. You know, God doesn't just leave us hanging. You know, God just tells us, you know, like if you, if you trust me and you do these things, guess what? Good things will come of it. And that's what Proverbs 18, 24 is talking about. He's like, I mean, can anyone really say here? I mean, raise your hand if you don't want any friends. You're like, I don't want any friends. Nobody wants no friends. Everybody wants friends. That was one of the biggest benefits of this church in the last year and a half. It's like, everybody else is crazy. Everybody else is locking themselves in their room for like a year and a half. I met a guy like that last week. Pale as a ghost, hasn't left his house. It's like, I go out at night to get gas. That's it. We just all have friends here. And we still had friends here. And we will always have friends here. Nobody doesn't want friends. That's why Proverbs 18, 24 is such a powerful verse because everybody wants friends. So let me just give you when we close with this. I'm going to give you two excuses. I'm going to give you two excuses because maybe some of you already made this excuse in your mind as I'm preaching this sermon. I'm going to give you two excuses that people give for being unfriendly or remaining unfriendly or just being, you know, you know, person or cat number three or cat number one, whichever the unfriendly cat was, you say, I don't feel like being friendly. It doesn't come natural. Look, I get it. There's a lot of people like that. Maybe, but here's the thing folks, maybe life isn't just about what you feel. Maybe life isn't about what you feel. Maybe you shouldn't be ruled by your emotions. I mean, you should just be friendly, just show yourself friendly as the Bible says. But here's the first excuse that people will give. People will give this excuse for not being friendly. They will say, they will say, nobody likes me. They'll say, nobody likes me. That's why I'm not friendly. You know, just people don't like me. And, you know, the irony of this is, the irony of this is that many times unfriendly people are unfriendly because they think nobody likes them, but nobody likes them because they're unfriendly. That's what Proverbs chapter 18 24 is trying to head off at the pass here. You know, it's saying, it's saying, look, be friendly and people, you know, you will have friends. But people will say that I'm just, you know, I'm not going to be a friendly person because people don't like me. But guess what, folks? People don't like you because you're not friendly. That's why. And people, you know, people don't want to have a friendship. People don't like to have a friendship. Look, people in the world will literally just not like you for this one reason because you're not a friendly person. And, you know, people, but nobody, as I demonstrated earlier, and I'll show you from the Bible here, an example, a great example in the Bible of this, nobody wants to have a one-way friendship. Nobody wants to have a friendship where you just do all the giving. You just give, give, give. You're calling them all the time, texting them all the time, you know, face, I didn't say Facebook. We'll cut that out of the tape. But the point is that nobody wants to have a one-way friendship. It doesn't work. You're not going to have a strong, great friendship that way. That's why Proverbs 18, 24, if you have two friends, it's best if both friends read the Bible. So both friends are showing each other friendliness. So the first one is people just think nobody likes me. Here's the second one. And it's kind of tied to the first one. But here's the second reason that people will remain unfriendly or people will be unfriendly is because this, they're afraid of rejection. They don't want to step out and, you know, be a friendly person because they're afraid that, and just let me say this, like, first of all, you don't have to worry about that here at the church because no one's going to reject you at the church because guess what? All your brothers and sisters in Christ that have already shown you from the Bible, they're commanded to be nice and to bless their enemy. I mean, and, you know, hopefully you're not an enemy but, I mean, imagine if you're a friend, they're going to respond to you. This is a friendly place is one of the reasons I preach a sermon like this. That's a culture I want to have at this church to be a friendly church. But guess what? If you're somebody who never calls anybody, you're somebody who never reaches out to anybody, someone who never talks to anybody, you know, even in a church with a good culture, here's the thing, you're not going to be rejected. People are going to come to you. That's how we know, that's how I, that's how I know if our church culture is healthy or not. If there's ever somebody sitting by themselves, I watch these types of things. If we ever have somebody sitting by themselves or, you know, you know, people are going to come to you in a friendly church because they're responding to the Bible. They're responding to what the Bible says. But, you know, they may think that you don't like them if you never come to them. That's the problem. That's the problem. A good friendship is always give and take. Turn to 1 Samuel chapter 18. Let me show you a good friendship in the Bible. Friendships will never be healthy if one side does all the giving. But, let me just comfort you before we get into this little study here that no one's ever going to reject you here because people are going to come to you. So, you don't have to be afraid of rejection here. Look at 1 Samuel chapter 18. 1 Samuel chapter 18. Not Saul. David and Jonathan is probably the best example of a two-way friendship in the Bible that I could think of. These two men they gave to each other throughout their entire lives and guess what? Beyond their lives. They gave to each other. Look at 1 Samuel chapter 18. Look at verse number 4. Think about this now. Think about the scenario here. Saul is king. Saul is Jonathan's father. Saul is Jonathan's father. In a kingdom who typically inherits the throne. The son. So, you have Saul being the king and Jonathan is literally the heir to the throne. And at one point I'll show you but you know Jonathan knew this is what I'm getting at. Look at verse number 4. Look at verse number 4 of 1 Samuel chapter 18. And Jonathan stripped himself of the robe that was upon him and gave it to David and his garments even to his sword and his bow and to his girdle. And David went out with or so ever Saul sent him and behaved himself wisely and Saul set him over the men of war and he was accepted in the sight of all the people and also in the sight of Saul's servants. Servants. The Bible says that David and Jonathan you see him just giving all his royal garments and his sword to David. It says that their souls were knit together. They were so tight. But you see you see Jonathan just giving David all these things. Jonathan supports David. Jonathan saves David's life. Jonathan goes out of his way to save David's life from his own father's madness. He goes out of his way for the man who was going to take the throne from him. As Saul looked at it we obviously know that you know Jonathan wasn't chosen to be the next king. Look at 1 Samuel chapter 20. 1 Samuel chapter 20. Look at verse 31. Actually I'll start reading in verse number 30. But here you have these two friends and you have Jonathan just giving and giving and giving to David despite anything that would be good from the worldly perspective for himself or for his position. Look at 1 Samuel chapter 20. Look at verse 30. And then Saul's anger was kindled against Jonathan. Saul was mad at his own son for this. Saul tried to kill his own son for this. Saul was anger was kindled against Jonathan. He said to him thou son of the perverse and rebellious woman do not I know that thou hast chosen the son of Jesse to thine own confusion and to the confusion of thy mother's nakedness for as long as the son of Jesse liveth upon the ground thou shalt not be established nor thy kingdom wherefore now send and fetch him unto me for he shall surely die. Saul is saying do you know that as long as this guy is alive he's like you've chosen this man to be your friend and as long as he's alive you will never be king. He's like you will never be king. What does Jonathan do? He saves his friend. He keeps giving to his friend. He just keeps giving and showing himself friendly to David. You say well that sounds like a one-sided relationship. I mean Jonathan's just giving and giving and giving. Turn to 2 Samuel chapter 9. We know that because of Saul's wickedness that he ends up getting killed by the Lord, by the Philistine army and then Jonathan dies with him. Jonathan dies with his father. Another many, many lessons about the responsibility of parents in that one. But the point is Jonathan is dead. Jonathan dies under the wicked rule of his father. Look at 2 Samuel chapter 9. 2 Samuel chapter 9. Look at verse number 1. You know David hears about this and he says, and he says, Is there any that is left in the house of Saul that I may show him kindness? Why? For Jonathan's sake. He says, Is there anybody else in Saul's family that is not dead that I may be kind to them for the sake of my friend Jonathan? Not for Saul's sake. Look down at verse number 6. Now when Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan, the son of Saul, was come unto David, he fell on his face and did reverence. And David said Mephibosheth and he answered, Behold, I servant. And David said unto him, Fear not, for I will surely show kindness for Jonathan thy father's sake and will restore thee all the land of Saul thy father, that thou shalt eat bread at my table continually. Look, this was a great friendship because you had two men that were constantly giving to each other. Even after Jonathan was dead, David was like, You know what? I'm taking care of your son for you forever, for your father's sake, for my friend's sake. Proverbs 18-24. Both sides. And it's a great friendship in the Bible. You just read it and it's just a wonderful story in the Bible. There's so many stories where people did wrong. This was right. This was two friends giving to each other both ways. Even after one of them was dead, that's how tightly knit that friendship was. So folks, you're either one of the three cats today. All right? You're either friendly like dirt. You're average. You're average. You're just kind of indifferent. If people are nice to you, you're nice to them. Or maybe you're even unfriendly. Maybe you're just an unfriendly person by nature. But the point is, you're not a brute beast. You're not a brute beast. We are to be friendly and we are to go to people. We are to become soul winners no matter what. Reach out to people and the benefit, look, and the benefit to others and the blessings to us. I mean, here's the thing. You will benefit so many people in your life if you can step outside of your natural tendencies, especially in this area. You will be a huge benefit to others. And then Proverbs 18-24 is saying, oh yeah, by the way, there's gonna be all kinds of benefits to you too. You know what that's called? That's called a win-win. Whenever you identify win-wins in your life, because there's a lot of situations in your life where it's like, okay, if I do this, it's good for me, but it's bad for them. And if I do this, maybe it's good for them, but it's bad for me. Any time you see a win-win in the Bible or in your life, you gotta take it. You gotta take that. This is a win-win. Stepping outside whatever category you are to make sure that you are a friendly person is gonna be a win-win. And guess what? People, here's a bold statement. People will end up in heaven because of it. It's like, yeah, and then guess what? You'll have a bunch of friends. You'll have great friendships. And people will end up in heaven. Win-win. I mean, what more do I need to say? Look, and guess what? There's no excuse in the church because it's a guarantee for you here. All the concerns that people have about being rejected, about, you know, just being nervous about it. Look, these people here are commanded to be your friend, literally. You're in a situation where people are commanded by the Word of God to be your friend, to be friendly to you. There is zero risk. It's a win-win situation with zero risk to it. It's beautiful. So think about that. Think about that throughout the week. Think about your friends in church throughout the week. Think about that when a visitor comes to church. You know, it's a terrifying thing to come to a new church. We have some visitors. Are you terrified right now? It's a terrifying... Look, it's a nerve-wracking thing to walk into a new church with a bunch of... Look at all these weird people. I mean, you don't know these people? But guess what? They're friendly. And if they're not, you come tell me. No, but here's the thing. It... You have to remember that about the culture of the church is, you know, no one... And the kids... Look, kids, I'm talking to you too. When new kids come to this church, you need to be friendly. You're like, I'm just a kid. Hey, you be a friendly kid. You walk up and say, hey, my name is Kid. And introduce yourself and show the new kids around and be a friendly person. Guess what? Go to them. Go to them. No one should ever be sitting by theirself in this church. You should always be going. Because look, that's impossible. It's impossible. How could it ever happen? How could it ever happen in a church where everybody's listening to what the Bible says? It's impossible. It's mathematically an impossibility. You can't get there because everyone's going to show themselves friendly. It should just be like everyone has springs that just jump out of their chair and they're just like showing themselves friendly to everybody. So there's no risk here, folks. And look, it's a culture. It's a culture. And don't forget this as we move because as we move, we're going to have a lot of visitors coming in. And it's one of the reasons I'm preaching this is that this is a super important thing. It's a super important culture. We need to have that here because we have a lot of new people coming into the church and we need to be friendly. And that means we have to show ourselves friendly. All right, let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.