Proverbs 27 | What Proverbs Says about Friends

Sunday Morning | June 15, 2025 | John C. Majors | Louisville, KY

In the sermon "What Proverbs Says About Friends" from Proverbs 27, Pastor John explored the biblical portrait of true friendship using the acronym F.R.I.E.N.D.S. True friends are Faithful, loving consistently through all seasons of life (Prov 17:17; 18:24), not driven by gain (19:4), and are Reputable, avoiding harmful influences and walking with the wise (13:20; 1 Cor 15:33). They offer Intentional Advice (27:9), steering clear of extremes like flattery or harshness. They speak words that Encourage, build up, and give grace (Eph 4:29), not harm or annoyance (Prov 27:14-15). A true friend is also Nearby, showing up in need and adversity (27:10), not just in convenience. A good friend is also Direct, willing to offer loving correction (27:5-6), and Sharpening, “Iron sharpens iron and one person sharpens another” Proverbs 27:17. Proverbs teaches that godly friendships are intentional, truth-filled, and rooted in love and wisdom.

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Transcript

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Well, it was exciting to see all these kids down here continuing the energy from Vacation Bible School this week. It was a it was a spiritually powerful week. And if you were involved in VBS in any way, whether you volunteered, help plan anything, would you stand up? And just so we can appreciate you and give you thanks? Come on. I know there was a bunch. Yeah. It it was almost easier to have you stand if you didn't participate. I think we had so many involved. We had some exciting moments. In fact, unfortunately, Lauren is not here. She headed up the whole thing, or I'd have her come up and we just give her some thanks. Because she's over our children's ministry. She and her husband, they both were athletes at Murray. He played baseball there and she ran track there. And so they were like, we, this may never happen again. They're in the College World Series. We're going to go see it. So they're off doing that. But we had some exciting times in fact, we even lost, some of our members involved in this lost parts of their person in the process of raising missions funds. Steve Brown, if you don't mind standing up, you may not recognize him. Steve, Steve had a beard down to about here, but he promised if we hit the missions funding goal, I'm going to shave it off. And of course, that got a lot of the it wasn't the missions part that got the kids motivated. It was the beard, maybe. And hopefully it was both. That's why we left out in the lobby though. This igloo they built, all the snowflakes that are hanging down. Each one represents$5 given toward missions by those kids last week. So it was a great time. A lot of really powerful spiritual conversations as well. And thank you for all you're a part of in participating in that. It's probably the most powerful outreach we have as a church the week of VBS. So thank you for being involved in that. All right. We're continuing in our study of the book of Proverbs, the Book of Wisdom. We all need ancient wisdom for a modern age. And as we study the Book of Proverbs, we went through the first nine chapters. Now we're just going to look at a time because Proverbs hips hits so many different topics all across the various chapters in the middle. This week we're going to be looking at friendships. What does Proverbs have to say about developing strong, godly friendships? One of my favorite authors as a child and still today, is C.S. Lewis. I loved reading. You may have heard of read Chronicles of Narnia Lion, the witch and the wardrobe, and I love those stories as a kid, but I also loved learning about all the other things he had written. One of the things that was really important to him was friendship. In fact, he had a very close friendship with a number of other authors. They would meet weekly. One of those was the writer of the Lord of the rings, J.R.R. Tolkien. They were very close friends. They would meet often to discuss what are you writing? How could this improve? They would challenge one another. Lewis actually wrote about friendship. He has this book called the For loves and in there he said, describing the beginning of a friendship, he said, friendship start when you have that first moment where you meet someone and you find out they're interested in that same weird thing that you like and you thought no one else like, you know, for them it was ancient languages. They would meet and discuss Anglo-Saxon or Old Norse. So typical. I know for most of us. But they went, you like that too? You must be my friend. We've all had that happen where there's that thing that you're really into and you're like, you do that you two moment. That's how friendships start. But what I want to talk about today, what does a true friend look like. And you know, the difference we're going to be looking at. In fact, I have a handout with a number of verses printed on there. If you didn't get a handout, just raise your hand. We'll make sure one gets to you right where you are. We have some people with copies. We're going to talk about what is a true friend. You know the difference. We all have lots of acquaintances, but how do you get a true friend? And what are the marks of a true friend? So we're going to be looking at this handout and and we'll see you in there. Seven marks of a true friend in the book of Proverbs we're going to use Proverbs chapter 27 as our anchor passage. So if you have a Bible, also turn to chapter 27 in Proverbs. And the page number for that in the church Bible is on that handout. It's on page 513. We'll be reading from the Bible directly as we look at these seven marks of a true friend. How do we get a true friend who is someone that is a true friend, not just a casual acquaintance there occasionally, but a true deep friend? Let's look at this first one here, the letter F. The first mark of a true friend is that they are faithful. They're faithful. Look at verse ten here. Just the first line of verse ten. Do not forsake your friend and your father's friend. A true friend is faithful. They don't forsake you in the hard times. In fact, look at a couple of these other verses here that I listed on the handout 1824. There is a friend that sticks closer than a brother. You've had this happen even though you're very close to family members. You you find that friend that they become even closer than family or look at 1717 a friend loves at all times. This is what I mean by that. That word faithful, the faithful friend is there with you even when you let them down. Even when you make poor choices, even when you go through hard times, when you mess up, when you're not the good friend, the faithful friend is. They're still there. They're not going anywhere. They stick by you. They're the ones who show up that you can count on when no one else is there. And, you know, it's interesting. Job's friends get a are given a pretty hard time, and rightfully so. For saying a lot of unhelpful things to him. Job. You know, if you just obey God more, none of this bad stuff would have happened to you. You obviously are disobeying him. God wouldn't allow all this bad stuff to happen to you otherwise. They're preaching to him when he didn't really want to hear it. But we often gloss right over chapter three when they first come on the scene. Because even though, yeah, they said a lot of wrong things, they were unhelpful in many ways. But when they showed up, his friends sat silent with him for seven days. And in fact, it says they sat on the ground with him. Have you ever had someone just come and say, I'm going to sit with you? I don't even have words to say. I know you're going through a hard time. I'm just going to be here. I'm going to lay down on the ground with you in your lowest moment for seven days, silent. That's a faithful friend. That's rare to have someone that will do that. And it's rare when we extend that kind of committed friendship. I'm going to be there no matter what. I don't even know what to say, but I'm there. I had a friend in little Rock. He was probably my closest friend. There we were. We would meet together regularly. We'd pray for one another. We'd have accountability. We had just a big encouragement to one another. And he went off the rails with drugs, ruined his family. He was a successful attorney, and from the appearances he seemed to have it all together and he went off the rails. And in the midst of this, we were on the phone a number of times and I knew he was lying to me left and right. It was so obvious. And I just said to him, look, man, I want you to know what you're doing makes me so sad. It breaks my heart for you, for your beautiful family, for all you're going through. But I want you to know I'm not going anywhere, all right? You can shut me out of your life if you choose. But I'm not. I'm not abandoning you. I'm not going anywhere. I don't know what that looks like. I'm not approving of how you're acting. I hate this for you. I'm not going anywhere. What's really amazing? In the midst of that, he ended up turning things back around. Lost his family. In the midst of that, though, they've reconnected, reestablished a relationship. He went through recovery. And then when I first came here as pastor for those six months of driving back and forth between little Rock and Louisville, he was on the phone with me every time, and we talked for hours and hours and hours. And he was a huge encouragement. And that friendship grew even stronger through that. The faithful friend says, I'm not going anywhere. I'm here. I'm here for you. Yeah, we had to set up boundaries. I don't approve of what you're doing, and we need that too. But the faithful friend sticks by you even through the hard times. That's the letter F, the first mark of a true friend is that they're faithful. Now, you can contrast this with what? Chapter 19, verse four says, the fairweather friend wealth brings many new friends, but a poor man is deserted. Yeah, when times are great, everyone is your friend. Everyone shows up. Everyone wants a slice of the pie. And then when it's all gone, like the prodigal son. Where are all your friends now? Those weren't true friends. Those were fairweather friends. Fickle friends. They just wanted you for what you offered. Not because of you. But the true friend is faithful. Next is the letter R faithful. And then r reputable. Or some pronounce that reputable. That's a better way to say it. Reputable, meaning they're of good standing, of good character. They in the community are well known and respected and admired. You want to surround yourself with people like that. Look here at verse 12. In chapter 27. Actually verse 11, first, be wise, my son. Make my heart glad. Then verse 12, the prudent sees danger and hides himself, but the simple go on and suffer for it. You want to surround yourself with people who are described as wise, as prudent. We did a whole sermon on character. You want to surround yourself. You want the people closest to you to be people of high moral character because they're going to influence you. In fact, look at chapter 13 here. It says 1320 whoever walks with the wise becomes wise. The people you surround yourself will influence you. It's unavoidable. They're going to rub off on you over time. That's why First Corinthians 1533 warns us bad company corrupts good morals. Watch out for those. And we've just listed a few here that Proverbs says to watch out for. Chapter one. Do not walk with the wicked. Do not be among the drunkards. Chapter 23 2024 one do not be envious of evil men or desire to be with them. Create distance from those who are evil. Make no friendship with a man given to anger. An angry person. Create distance. Don't have them as your inner circle of friends. They are going to influence you. And then look at chapter 27, verses three and four. He describes a couple of people here a stone is heavy, a sand is weighty, but a fool's proclamation is heavier than both wrath. This cruel anger is overwhelming. But who can stand before jealousy, before a jealous person? You don't want the fool, the jealous, the anger, the wicked, evil. Those shouldn't be your closest friends, your inner circle of people, because they're going to distance you. In fact, one one quote I like to share, especially with young people, that I don't remember who said it, but he said you will basically become the average of the five people you spend the most time with. Now, is that exactly true or not? I don't know, but you know what the point is? The people around you shape you deeply and oftentimes in ways you don't realize it. Not just the people you spend time around, but also the people you admire. You subconsciously try to become like them. And so it's important to be around reputable people. Now, let me give a balance to this as a caveat, because I know many of us are also thinking, now wait a second. Scripture calls us to be salt and light to the world. So you're saying avoid the world. Avoid people who are. All these things? Describe wicked, evil, angry on and on. Well, no, I'm not saying to completely avoid them, but the reality is, those who are in your inner circle need to be ones that are going to help you grow, improve. You've become a better person, not not bring you down. And yes, we engage with those who are described this way. Even, but we don't make them the people who are most influential in our life. We know when to create distance. And this is especially important if you're a new Christian, because I see this happen over and over again. You become a new Christian, and you've been running with a crowd that has been tearing you down and pulling you away from Christ. Well, now, of course, you're a new Christian and you want them to know Christ. Do you want to know them? To know the hope, joy, peace that you have in Christ, but yet also, you know, but if I go back, run them with them. I'm going to go right back to the way I was. You have to create some distance for a season. And that's not, by the way, that's not giving up on them. What you're doing is you're actually you're becoming strong enough to actually be a help to them. If you go back to them and they pull you right back down to you where you're not helping them or yourself, it's it's not that you've given up on them. And by the way, by creating some distance from someone who's pulling you down, you're also saying, God, I trust you enough to bring the right person into their life. You actually are powerful enough to reach them. It all doesn't depend on me. You see how prideful that can become? Well, if I don't do it, who will? Well, okay. Yes, we do have responsibility. But there's a point. And there's a time where you operate from a place of strength, a spiritual strength. And when you're weak, you've got to grow stronger in him to be of to be of use in those friendships. So we want to be surrounded by people who are reputable. It's your core group, those who are closest to you, who are going to influence you. Now. Next the letter I. We want faithful, reputable, and then we want people who give intentional advice. The word often used in Proverbs. But it didn't start with an I is council. We give counsel intentional advice. You want to be surrounded by people who can give you advice that you think is helpful. You respect their opinion. You admire them. You think that what they have to say and what they have, they have to offer is useful to you. Look here at a couple of these verses. Chapter 27 verse nine says, oil and perfume make the heart glad, and the sweetness of a friend comes from his earnest counsel. One of the rich byproducts of a good friendship is when they can help give you good advice that help improve your life, that help point you in the right direction. We all need that, you know. It's too easy to get isolated and to think that everything you think is perfect. Has that ever happened? I have the best idea ever. And then you share it with someone you respect and admire and they go, what are you doing? What are you thinking? And you realize maybe that wasn't as great as I thought it was? We get isolated. Proverbs 18 one we didn't spend time. We spent time in chapter 18 last week. We didn't look at that verse. He who isolates himself, seeks his own desire, breaks out against all sound judgment. Sometimes we get isolated because we don't want to hear what our good friends have to say. We actually don't want their advice because I want to keep going down the path. I'm going down because I think it's the best idea ever. But actually, I know what they would say and they would disagree, and I don't want to hear it. But the good friend, the true friend gives intentional advice. You come to them, you ask, and they say, here's the direction to go. Here's how I see it. Not in a top down, heavy handed way, but to help give you direction. They offer intentional advice. Now there's two caveats to this. Okay, I wrote in here in the notes to ditches. Meaning if you're going down a road, there's two ditches you can fall off on either side. One is to say, I'm going to find selective wisdom. You've seen people do this where you go and find the person you know will give you the answer you want. I don't go to people who I respect and admire. Maybe I do kind of respect them, but I only go to those who I think will give me the answer I want to hear in the moment. That's not what true biblical counsel is. I need to surround myself with people who I know are going to the Scripture first and foremost, not just to make me happy, but to help deliver truth to my heart through the Scripture. So that's one is selective wisdom. In fact famous story in the Old Testament first Kings, Rehoboam, Jeroboam. Brabham was Solomon's son, was given the kingdom. But Solomon had been pretty heavy handed on the people. And Jeroboam was like, look, hey, by the way, you need to lighten up or I said, let me think about it. So he goes to the old men, gets their advice, and they say, yeah, now's the time to lighten up. Your dad was too heavy handed. And then he says, well, let me, let me ask some other guys what they think. And he goes to the young men and they say, oh, you think Solomon was heavy handed? Wait till you see this. And divided the kingdom. He went and found the wisdom he wanted rather than godly biblical counsel of a true friend. You need to surround yourself with people who aren't afraid of sharing with you the truth of Scripture. In love. However, another ditch you can follow up on, on the other side of the equation is sometimes we get into this situation where we're just endlessly searching for wisdom. I got a hard decision to make, and so I ask someone, and I ask someone else, and I ask someone else. And I keep asking because really, I don't want to make the hard decision. I got enough wisdom about 13 people ago, and I just don't want to make the hard decision. And so I just need a little more information. Sometimes we put off the hard decision under the guise of I need a little more counsel. Don't don't fall off on either side. And it takes, by the way, great wisdom to know when's the time to make the hard decision to pull the trigger? When I have enough advice that requires wisdom as well. But the true friend will give you the intentional godly counsel. That's letter I. Now let's look at letter E. What's another mark of a true friend? It's that they are an encourager. They're an encourager. Look at chapter 27, verse two. Let another praise you in not your own mouth, a stranger and not your own lips. The word stranger hints at the idea of a neighbor, someone nearby. You want to be surrounded with people who will encourage you. And I'm not talking about false encouragement and flattery. That's not helpful. But you want the people closest to you to be those who build you up in general, not look for opportunities to tear you down. A couple of great verses on this are here in the notes Ephesians chapter 429. Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as good for building up. We spent all last week talking about our words. Your words can build up or tear down. Let the words of your mouth build others up even hard words as fits the occasion that it may give grace to those who hear that's who you want to be surrounded with, not empty praise, but you want the people closest to you to be those who build you up, that make you better through their words that encourage you. Now, in contrast to that is verse 15, a continual dripping on a rainy day and a quarrelsome wife or are like. Now we'll get to marriage here over the coming weeks. I'm not going to spend a lot of time on the quarrelsome wife here. We'll just say the quarrelsome person, the people who are closest to you shouldn't be quarrelsome. They shouldn't be the kind of person who's always looking to pick a fight, always looking to point out everything that's wrong with you. That's like a continual dripping of water and water. Rain should be a great blessing. And yet too much of it. In fact, I've heard from so many recently, unprovoked. I'm so down with the rain. I'm so tired of all the rain. You know there's something about it. It just gets you restless. Sitting in the house all day. It's raining all the time. I feel like I need to go somewhere else and do something else. I gotta get away from it. I can't escape it. It's everywhere. That nagging, that continual dripping, that criticism over and over and over again. That's the opposite of what a true friend is called to be called to be an encouragement. Not only are they an encourager, they know when to say what's right. They have tact. They have wisdom with their words. I love these verses here that are listed out 2714. You can look at it here in chapter 27. Whoever blesses his neighbor with a loud voice rising early in the morning will be counted as cursing. We talked about this one last week. There's something about the timing of your words. Yeah, you came to be an encouragement. I'm not ready for it. And it actually has the opposite effect. 2520 says songs sung to a heaven heavy heart are like vinegar on soda, and you've had this happen. Maybe you're in the period of mourning and someone comes in to cheery and it does not catch you, right? It's not the right moment. It's not the right time. A true friend sees that and they sit silent for seven days. They know now is not the time. They're sensitive to your needs. They're engaged with who you are. They're being intentional. They're really, truly thinking about, how do I best love this person right now? Lastly, what's listed here is 2618 through 19. You can flip over there and read it like a madman who throws firebrands, arrows and death is the man who deceives his neighbor and says, I'm only joking. I'm only kidding. No big deal. Why are you so upset? And look, I've got friends. We are all the time giving each other a hard time joking with one another. But a true friend knows when you've gone too far. A true friend knows when to dial it back a true friend knows when it's not funny. When it's not appropriate. A true friend knows when it goes from humor to pain. And they say that's not who I'm called to be. I'm called to build up, not tear down. Called to be an encouragement. That's letter E now. Letter in. And the seven marks of a true friend. A true friend should be nearby. Look at verse ten. The last part of verse ten better is a neighbor who is near than a brother who is far away. A true friend more than likely needs to be someone who's nearby, who is accessible. In fact, I think there's two dynamics to this. I have two factors when it comes to building friendships here. One phrase that Julie and I use all the time, and this would be the first one listed here. Proximity is the key to community in churches. Talk all the time about how important it is to build community with one another. Proximity, meaning distance, is the key to community. You're most likely to connect deeply with those you have the best access to. You're most likely to be closest to the people you spend the most time with. Probably neighbors, probably people that were probably people you're hanging out with at church regularly. So I encourage people look for opportunities to live closer to those you worship with, go to school with, go to church with, work with. It's kind of anti-American. The American mindset is, man, just go. Go as far as you can. Get better house, get more land, move further out. Go to the place you've always wanted to be, but that's isolating. I'm not saying never to do that, you understand. But there's something about proximity that will deepen friendships. The other one to pay attention to here is time. Okay, when it comes to developing friendships, they've got to be nearby, both in distance. But in in time. There's there's no shortcuts to building friends. There's no shortcuts to friendships. Time is probably the key factor. And that takes a takes commitment. It takes dedication. That takes some hard choices about your life. We're often rushing around everywhere, and especially as you get older, it's harder to build true deep friendships. I got a couple of guys that we met at freshman orientation in college. We were all four of us in freshman orientation. We met the first day, and ever since then we've been very close friends. But of course, after college we kind of separated off different directions. But even then, right away, we said we spent so much time together in college. We developed such deep friendships. We had almost every class together through the whole time. We can't give this up. We had grown very close through Bible studies, through ministries on campus. We can't give this up. We got to fight for this. So we started to do annual camping trips. And then when kids came along, we thought, well, we're gonna have to give this up. No father son camping trips. Let's bring the kids along. And then, of course, the kids get older and we can't work out schedules to them. I said, well, forget the kids now. We're going to keep meeting together. We're not going to give it up. We'll go back to how it was before the kids because these friendships are too important. You can't just all of a sudden go find a true friend when you need them. In fact, as we met together every year, we realize we got too much to cover. In this brief three nights together, we need to get regular phone calls. We start scheduling monthly phone calls, sometimes more often than that. And look, what does your true friendship look like? I don't know, but the reality is someone's got to fight for that friendship. It's not just going to happen on its own. You gotta carve out the time and make it happen. Figure out how to have that friend be nearby so they can speak into your life. That's let her in. And now let her die. The mark of a true friend, one mark of a true friend is that they are can be, will be when needed. Direct. In fact, the word is candor and that could also be used. Are not afraid of saying the hard thing. In fact, look at verses five and six in chapter 27. Better is an open rebuke than hidden love. Faithful are the wounds of a friend. Profuse are the kisses of an enemy. I love that verse because it's the opposite of what you expect. Wounds usually come from an enemy. Kiss is usually come from a friend. Well, maybe don't go around kissing your friend, but you understand. Like the loving should come from a friend. And this shows sometimes wounds help. Sometimes kisses aren't true. They're false. And the faithful friend isn't afraid to be direct. They know there are times I've got to say the hard thing to a friend. For the sake of for the relationship. I'm willing to risk saying the hard thing, knowing that this couldn't hurt the friendship. But hopefully we've got enough goodwill built up that I can say this to them because I love them. Because I care about them for the good of the friendship. Your truest friends are willing to do that. They are. It's not a true friend who will ignore the hard thing that won't point out the blind spot in your life that let you keep going along, and not even realizing that you're blind. True friends are built and that friendship is built on truth. C.S. Lewis highlighted this as well. He said, if if someone wants to be your friend and they say, but I don't want to hear the truth. That's not a friendship that that friendship has nothing that it's based on whatever they want. It's not it's not a true friendship. The true friend will be direct. They will be clear. They're not afraid of giving you the rebuke. They're not afraid of telling you what you need to hear. Now, let me give two caveats to that as well. Yeah. Remember, the title is friend, not Holy Spirit. You are not the Holy Spirit for your friend. And if you're always rebuking and correcting me, we're not going to be hanging out a whole lot after a while. Distance is going to come between us because the person who does that over and over again, and sometimes you'll hear this. Well, I just told it like it is and they couldn't handle it anymore. Well, sometimes that's a sign that maybe you think there's nothing wrong with you. Or I should say maybe I think there's nothing wrong with me. But I'm not talking about you, per se. I've been there, overly critical of the friend. All you see is the things they're doing wrong. I'm not the Holy Spirit. I'm not your Holy Spirit. The call of the friend is to know, to have the wisdom, to know when to deliver the rebuke and to do it in kindness and in love, and with a measure of humility, realizing, look, I may not be 100% right on this, but here's what I'm seeing. And as your friend, I know you would be willing to risk the friendship to bring this up with me, to help me be better. That's the mark of a true friend. That is love. So you're not the Holy Spirit. And then second, one thing to be mindful of is. We've already looked at first, Peter, that talked about the reality that love covers a multitude of sins and a good friendship. Does that, overlook many things with a true friend? Things that might bother me normally I overlook for the sake of the friendship. So, John, which is it? Are you saying to go around rebuking, or are you saying to go around overlooking things? Well, keep in mind with first Peter says love covers a multitude of sins. It doesn't say every sin. There are things for the sake of the friendship, we got to bring up if we want to keep growing, if we want the relationship to be based on truth, we've got to bring it up. And look. All this brings us to letter S. Here's what's happening in a true friendship. What happens in a true friendship is sharpening. I didn't listen to verse here, but it's verse 17. Iron sharpens iron and so one man sharpens another. You've had this happen. The best friendships. You sharpen one another, you make one another better. And by the way, sharpening iron, sharpening iron. Sparks are flying. Metal is being shaved off. That's not a comfortable process, but we're making one another better. We're sharpening one another. We're willing to say, I care enough about you to enter in to this hard thing, to make you stronger. I think another word we could use sharpening. We could use sanctifying. As Christians, those closest to me should be those who are pursuing Christ, and that when we get together, there is this longing to discuss scripture. There's this longing to talk about what Christ is doing in my life. That's a sharpening relationship. That's part of why we come together. Hebrews talks about that. Do not forsake meeting one another. Spur one another on towards love and good deeds. The thing I want to plead with you with to wrap all this up. Do whatever it takes to be building those true friendships. Don't wait. We're in a very isolated culture, a very isolated world. We think we can connect with everyone online, and there's some of that, but nothing replaces what's happening here right now. Nothing replaces the face to faith. Face. You can't go find a true friend when you need them. I've had a number of true friends, and one of them I grew up here with, and I remember in first grade we were down the hall in the children's area in those little bitty blue plastic chairs, and I'm in my three piece suit like you should be in first grade back then back in the day, 1978. And he I don't think he was wearing three piece suit, but I still I didn't look down on him. Too bad. And we said, hey, you two friendship, first grade, five years old. And we went through so much of life together year after year after year. But then I moved away. He started doing other things. We started living life, our own lives, and we kind of drifted apart. In 2016, he took his own life. And I got to tell, you know, that was a hard day because I thought, where was I for him? Where was I? I should have been there in his life. This is a true friend. You can't just go find another true friend. Don't wait. Whoever that friend is, press into their life. Be the friend you want to have. Be the true friend. It's too important for your own sake and for the gospel. Let's pray. God, we thank you that you give us friendship. You even said to us, you said to your disciples, I have called you friend. Thank you that you are God. You are Lord, you are creator, you are sovereign, and you are also friend. God, give us the courage to be a true friend, to know when to be direct, to know when to be silent, to be growing ourselves in the gospel every day so that we can be the kind of friend that we all need. Thank you for the book of Proverbs that gives us great wisdom. We love you, Jesus. Amen. Well, it is Father's Day, and so for fathers and wannabe fathers, we have a gift as you're leaving. It's a small book on what it means to be a father, what it means to be a godly man. That'll be a big encouragement to you. Be sure to grab one of those on your way out. Thank you again for all your work on VBS this week, and your prayers. Be praying for those kids this week. Many of them are chewing on many of the biblical truths they heard this week, so be praying for them. But let's all stand and we'll have a closing prayer of blessing. May the Lord bless you and keep you. May his face shine upon you and be gracious to you. May you feel the fullness of his countenance in your life, his presence in your life today. And may you feel the overwhelming fullness of his peace. We love you, Jesus. Thank you for loving us. It's in your powerful, majestic, holy good name we pray. Amen. Have a great day. Go in peace.