Be Friendly

BALANCE

“Be Friendly”

Luke 2:52, 1st Samuel 23:16 and Psalm 139:1-4

One of the most popular topics in songwriting today has been the subject of friendship. Many decades ago Beatles sang a song titled I get by with a little help from my friends James Taylor and

Carol King sang a song titled you’ve got a friend. Words read...

when you're down and troubled and you need a helping hand

And nothing, whoa, nothing is going right. Close your eyes and think of me and soon I will be there. To brighten up even your darkest nights. You just call out my name, and you know wherever I am. I'll come running, oh yeah baby, to see you again

Winter, spring, summer, or fall. All you got to do is call and I'll be there, yeah, yeah, yeah. You've got a friend

One of the primary figures of the OT was a man named David. And this was a man who basically had it all. The Bible tells us that David was…

• Handsome. Even Goliath said David was handsome and he despised David.

• Strong. When a lion turned on him he seized the lion by its hair and killed it. When a bear carried off one of the lambs from his flock, David chased the bear down, punched the bear (who does that?) And took the Lamb back.

• It also know he was a hero. When Goliath threatened Israel for 40 days, Goliath would come out every morning and every evening, just to intimidate. The people... And it worked. But David stepped up and with one Rock he killed Goliath.

Handsome, strong; a hero... Everyone loved David... And he was chosen to be king. So what more could someone want? Well there was another word used to describe David and that was the word lonely. How can someone who seem to have it all, feel so lonely? Listen to what he says and Psalm 142:4. Then in Psalm 22 he said my God why have you forsaken me? Are you so far from the? Ever feel like that? Loneliness is a terrible thing and there’s just one solution. You must find friends. You must befriend people. And to do so, you must learn to be friendly. Because, here’s the deal. There is perhaps no feeling we face in life that is more difficult than when we are completely alone.

Recent poll says that four out of every 10 people in America admit to frequent feelings of intense loneliness. One ad in a local newspaper read this way: call me. I will listen to Utah for 30 minutes without making any comments for just five dollars. Sounds like a joke. But they were serious. And get this. It wasn’t long before this individual was receiving nearly 20 calls a day.

Is a good reason why most of us experience loneliness from time to time is not because we’re weak... It’s not because we have a character flaw— the reason is simple... God created us for community; we are better together. One of the biggest mistakes we have made I think is forgetting what God said in Genesis. He had created the sun, moon, stars---animals and of course man and once you get he looked at all of it and said, this is good. But then he says but it is not good for man to be alone. Every one of us has a built-in need for a deep satisfying relationship with another person. God created us for community. To make friends.

This is the conclusion of a major study done by Harvard University. The study interviewed almost 30,000 adults in over 40 different cities in the United States. Listen. The study indicated that the degree to which we socialize with one another, trust one another and join with one another in community life predicts a cities quality-of-life better than education or income. So it is not about how smart we are or how wealthy we are that will give us quality-of-life-is based on friendship.

Just one more thing about loneliness. With over 7.5 billion people on this planet, there are good reasons why we are more lonely than ever. There are at least four reasons. Here they are.

(1) Computers and cell phones. Social media can become our only way we communicate. And we lose the sense of touch.

(2) Television. Average person watches 4-5 hours of television a day. We have a new term called binge watching.

(3) Longer work hours. Most people I know work more than eight hours a day or 40 hours a week.

(4) Two income families. And sometimes husbands and wives work two different shifts. One works 7-3 while the other works 3-11 they sleep and start over.

Here’s some good news. God would not place a need in your life without a plan to meet that need. The answer is learning to be a true friend. Here are some things to look for in a friendship.