Dharius Daniels - What About Your Friends?

So, we’re doing a series called «Put People in Their Place.» This is part two, and today I want to talk to you about a subject found in Proverbs, Chapter 18, Verse 24. Everybody, Proverbs 18, Verse 24! So, turn there, click there, or follow along with us on the screens. Listen to this: «One who has unreliable friends soon comes to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.» I want to talk from this topic in our time together. The topic is the question. The question is as follows: What about your friends?

On August 28, 1992, an R&B/pop girl group called TLC released a single entitled «What About Your Friends?» There is a key part of the chorus of this song that I believe assists me in articulating what is on my heart for us today. I am aware that in this service, my 11:30 service, many of you were not born in 1992. I also know that there are many of you who were born but have only listened to gospel music your whole life, so you are unfamiliar with the song. Therefore, I felt it may be helpful for me to introduce a key part of the chorus of this song because I believe it is salient for my sermon.

Listen: «What about your friends? Will they stand their ground? Will they let you down again?» Somebody has some tough relationships. What about your friends? Are they going to be low down? Will they be around? Will they turn their backs on you? I must pause for the cause and shout out T-Boz, Chilli, and Left Eye and thank them for providing me with some substance for this sermon because I believe they’re encouraging us to do something that is essential to experiencing God’s best, and that is, at some point, you’ve got to pause for the cause and evaluate your friendships.

I know there may be people watching or listening who are saying, «Pastor, I am good with me. I’ve been doing me as long as I’ve been me. I have been operating without assistance, so I don’t need it.» I want to tell you that the Bible, which is the operations manual for human living, the Bible, which is your blueprint to your best life, the Bible, which is the map to your ministry, the Bible, which is the directions to your destiny, the Bible, which tells you how to get the best out of you, says you should reconsider. The Bible says, «One who has unreliable friends soon comes to ruin.»

The assumption that the writer is making is that you will hit a season in life that requires support outside of yourself. At some point, you will be faced with an unexpected obstacle that will feel like an emotional heart attack. When your heart is under attack, you need a safe place to release toxic emotions, a safe place to process what you’re experiencing, a safe place to expose what you’re struggling with. Friendships should be the space where you feel safe because people who do not have a safe place to release toxic emotions end up releasing them in the wrong place. And when you release them in the wrong place, to the wrong people, stuff that should stay confidential ends up being public information.

Now, you not only have to deal with the issue you’re trying to overcome; you’ve got to deal with the embarrassment associated with having to live through that in public. It’s one thing to have to go through just to go through; it’s another thing to go through in public. We need friends, and if nothing has hit your life yet that has required that kind of emotional assistance, keep on living, because there’s a heartbreak that will hit your heart that will make you talk to anybody who’s listening. You will pull up to Chick-fil-A, and they will say, «What’s your order, please? Can I help you?» And you’ll respond, «Yes, I need some help.» «What do you mean, 'I need help'?» «What’s your name?»

I don’t have anybody being honest with me in here today, that at some point, your heart gets overwhelmed, and it needs to be emptied. And it needs to be emptied in a non-judgmental, safe, confidential space. Friends, we need friends not only because we need support for burdens, but we also need friends because we need support for blessings. If we have experiences in our life similar to the experiences of someone in the Bible named Peter, who was a fisherman and was fishing all night at one point but caught nothing, we can relate. The Bible says Jesus steps into his boat and tells him to launch out again into the deep.

Peter, who is a fisherman, looks at Jesus, who is a carpenter, and says, «Wait a minute. Found you build houses. I fish. I know how this works. You’re telling me to fish in the middle of the day? We don’t have the technology they’ll have in 2020. If I fish today, they’re going to see the net and go right around it. We have to fish at night.»

Nevertheless, Peter says, «Not my word, but at your word, I’m going to let down my net.» Because, Jesus, I recognize you are an expert in everything. Whatever area I’m operating in, I’m going to submit my wisdom to yours, because if you say drop the net one more time, I don’t care how many times I tried and it didn’t work. When you say drop it, I’m going to drop it like it’s hot! Is there anybody in this room today that knows that God is a God of perfect timing? Sometimes you’re doing the right thing; you’re just doing it at the wrong time. When God says drop it, drop it!