TRUNEWS with Rick Wiles - Morning Manna - Dec 18, 2025 - Proverbs 18:22-24 - Finding Favor and Guarding Friends

Episode Date: December 18, 2025

Proverbs 18:22–24 highlights God’s design for blessing through relationships. Finding a wife is described as finding a good thing and receiving favor from the Lord, reminding us that covenant companionship is a divine gift, not a mere achievement. Yet the passage also warns that many acquaintances do not equal true friendship, while one faithful friend can be closer than a brother. In today’s Morning Manna, Rick Wiles and Doc Burkhart explore the difference between God-given relationships and shallow connections, the blessing of covenant faithfulness, and the enduring strength found in loyal, godly friendship. Teachers: Rick Wiles and Doc Burkhart You can partner with us by visiting FaithandValues.com, calling 1-888-519-4935, or by mail at PO Box 399 Vero Beach, FL 32961. MEGA FIRE reveals the ancient recurring cycles of war and economic collapse that have shaped history for 600 years. These patterns predict America is now entering its most dangerous period since World War II. Get your copy today! www.megafire.world Get high-quality emergency preparedness food today from American Reserves! www.AmericanReserves.com It’s the Final Day! The day Jesus Christ bursts into our dimension of time, space, and matter. Now available in eBook and audio formats! Order Final Day from Amazon today! www.Amazon.com/Final-Day Apple users, you can download the audio version on Apple Books! www.books.apple.com/final-day Purchase the 4-part DVD set or start streaming Sacrificing Liberty today. www.Sacrificingliberty.com

Well, good morning, everybody. Welcome to Morning Manna for Thursday, December 18, 2025. Tomorrow will be our final Morning Mata Lesson for 2025. It's been a wonderful year. I hope it's been a profitable year spiritually for you and in every other way. I have thoroughly enjoyed this year. I've gotten a lot out of preparing and teaching this class. It's been meaningful to me, and I'm confident it has been meaningful to you also. We receive a lot of emails and letters from people telling us what Morning Manna is doing in their lives, and that is extremely encouraging.

I want to remind you that even though we're taking a two-week, a holiday break, think of it as a college semester break, you know, at Christmas time. We're taking a two-week break, and then Doc and I will return on Monday, January 3rd, January 5th, Monday, January 5th, 2026, and our new address will be manna nation.com. Don't worry about if you, you know, remembering the name manna nation.com, if you enter in Faith and Values.com, it will roll over to mananation.com. And what you're going to see is the first iteration of our new platform. It will not be the complete platform, but just think of it as kind of the front porch of the new platform.

We're going to have it ready enough to do morning manna. And then throughout 2026, we're going to add to it, improve it, expand it. And God willing, we're also going to launch a platform for children, ages three to seven. And we're going to have courses to teach the Word of God to learn. little children. I'm really excited about that project. And when you support this ministry, you're supporting our efforts to build this platform for children. So there's a lot of things happening. We're very grateful that the Lord has sustained this ministry and that he is blessed to you and I pray that you're going to have a very wonderful and prosperous new year.

So, Doc, today, we're going to look at chapter 18, verses 22 to 24. So we're finishing up chapter 18. And then in January, we will start with chapter 19. We're going to finish out the Book of Proverbs when we come back in January. So let's get into this. I'll pray. And you can read the word, Almighty God, our Father in heaven. Father, we thank you for this day.

We thank you for the wonderful year that we've had, Father, and how you have worked, how your Word and the Holy Spirit has worked inside of us. And, Father, we're hungry for more. We desire you more than anything else in this universe. We desire you, Father. Holy Spirit, take charge of this lesson and teach us our Father's Word. In Jesus' name, amen. Good morning, everyone. Welcome to a Thursday edition of Morning Manna. Glad to have you with us,

no matter where you are in the world, and this is a global Bible study. People from all over the world join us on a daily basis, learning from the Word of God, and we are currently exploring Proverbs. We're in Chapter 18, finishing that up today. I just want to echo Rick's sentiments there in that many of you have expressed that you've received a lot from Morning Man. I can echo that myself. in life that, especially this year, 2025, it's like this year it's really been getting in, getting in deeper and deeper and deeper this year. Not that didn't make an impact before, but something is different.

It's that line upon line, precept upon precept, as you continue to build on a regular basis, on study of the Word of God, it builds on itself. And so it's actually, it's a lot of fun, to be honest with it really is. to see God continue to do that work. And then every day, you come in here and uncover another nugget that I never saw before. And so we are in chapter 18, Proverbs. I'm going to read just three verses today, but there's a lot in these verses. Picking up verse 22, we're finishing chapter 18 today.

Read along with me, if you would, please. Who so findeth a wife, findeth a good thing, and obtaineth favor of the Lord. the poor uses entreaties but the rich answers roughly in verse 24 a man that hath friends must show himself friendly and there is a friend that sticks closer than a brother a lot packed in these three small verses let's get into it right amen let's do it verse 22 king james who so findeth a wife findeth a good thing and obtaineth favor of the Lord. The Septuagint says, He that has found a good wife has found favors

and has received gladness from the Lord. Slightly different nuance there with the Septuagint. King James saying, Whoso finds wife. Subtugent says, He that has found a good wife, okay? And the King James says, finds, obtains favor of the Lord. And the Septuagin says, has received gladness from God.

So let's jump in and see what this is. Fine. King James findeth, fine, modern English, fine. To me, Doc, the way it is stated is, and again, This is the difference between the King James translation and the Septuagint. The King James implies an active discovery guided by divine providence. All right. To me, the Septuagint is saying, you're not searching, you have found, you have found a good wife.

he that has found a good wife. The message of both of them is that a good wife is not something that you find but is given to you from God. That a good wife is a gift from the Lord. The Hebrew word is for find is identical with

or excuse me the Hebrew word for wife is identical with the word that God pronounced over creation okay so it's it's saying that a wife is creation level

good Solomon is equating a good wife with the level of goodness in creation a good thing at which is a reversal of what happened in the Garden of Eden when Eve got Adam in trouble

and Adam got himself in trouble by going along with it. The wife of virtue, which is we're going to study in Proverbs 31. The wife of virtue is considered the crown jewel of a man's life as described in Proverbs 31. She is not a she is not just good. She is the best. She's the best earthly blessing a man can receive.

That's the message in Proverbs 31. And here in Proverbs 18, verse 22. It's teaching that marriage is God ordained. Well, let me phrase it like this. It's teaching that marriage, when that marriage is ordained by God. Because not every marriage is ordained by God. People just, they just got married.

God had nothing to do with it. That's true. All right? When I say God had nothing to do with it, maybe they got married in a church and a pastor, you know, read the vows to them, but I'm saying that God had nothing to do with it in a sense that God didn't, neither partner was seeking God's advice and counsel and guidance to find a partner. Usually, you know, that decision is being driven by very cornal criteria. they're looking for someone that meets their

earthly image of what a great mate is going to be like okay so but what this is teaching is that when God has ordained the marriage it is the greatest earthly favor you can have next to salvation and this shows a lot doc Finding the right wife means completing your life Eve came from Adam's side she didn't come from his head

and she didn't come from his feet she came from his side she didn't come from his skull to rule over him she didn't come from his feet for him to walk over her Eve came from Adam's side to be by his side to complete him to be one

that they were to become one, one flesh so ultimately finding a good wife is finding a walking breathing daily sermon that says

God is good to me and his favor is upon me. Now, Doc, this proverb was written by Solomon, and Solomon had 300 wives. Yes. What does this, I've never understood that. How could somebody, in the Bible, used by God, how could they have 300 wives? I've never understood the theological justification. of that. Well, his marriages were mostly political anyway, and so, but that being the case, we have to sometimes separate the writer from the ultimate writer of Scripture. Okay. So,

we consider the book of Proverbs to be inspired and it's the Word of God. It, you know, of course, written by the Holy Spirit. And so, So the Holy Spirit is inspiring Solomon to write to the ideal, to the ultimate, you know. He, whoso find us, and I lean more toward the Septuagint version of this, because it all depends on where the adjective is placed in Hebrew. You can either say it's a good thing or it's a good wife. And so either way, it means the same thing. He's, who so findeth a good wife, that's a, you know, that's a good thing, right?

You know, someone could make the case, did he ever find a good wife? That's the question. Was he still searching? At 299, was he still searching for a good wife? When he got to 300, did he say, I found her or I'm just tired? I'm not looking anymore. Well, that's when he wrote Ecclesiastes. And so, but once again, for me, there's no, there's no issue here because the scripture is inspired

by the Holy Spirit. And we're looking toward the ideal. And the ideal is that a wife, a good wife is a blessing from God. It's a recognition of his covenant in our life. God is the matchmaker who brought her to the man. Eden, and he still does. And those who have a godly wife, a good wife, a godly wife, and I think really we could use that word godly, not just good. You know, there's a lot of good people in the world, but are there godly people, are there godly wives? But a godly wife really is a man's glory, his strength and his joy, it's his crown, it's

his heritage. It's his reward. But really, this verse is a diagnostic tool once again. It's a dashboard light. If a man is saying that if he's not calling his wife a good thing, it could be he has a heart problem and not a wife problem. Okay. That's not always the case. Right. Okay. Because we're all in rebellion, including the wives. So, So, but this verse is also redemptive, too. Even broken marriages can be made good by the grace that made the first marriage. So the only perfect wife is the wife of the Lamb of God. Every earthly wife should be a reflection of that, a living example of that becoming joy,

that the bride of Christ is going to be presented. to the bridegroom, perfect, white, no stains, you know, no sin, nothing at all. But, you know, that's a redeemed wife. And every man needs a redeemed wife. Now, I like to make the observation here, Rick, that he knows it didn't give a message to wives here to find a wise husband. That's what the rest of Proverbs is about. The fools. The fools.

And so the women that have been paying attention up to this point said, well, I've been dealing with all the other issues here at this point. And now it's time for men to open their mailbox. That's right. But once again, I just go back, keep in mind that when we're reading scripture, it's inspired by the Holy Spirit. God used human hands to write it, to compile it, to bring it to fruition. but ultimately it's inspired by the Holy Spirit

and God is giving us a message toward the ideal situation here to what is a picture not only of what a godly marriage should be like here on earth but ultimately a picture of what that godly marriage on the last day on the final day is going to look like too a perfect bride presented to her most holy bridegroom amen amen

And, Doc, one final thought on this is that, I think if a woman is listening to this and is not in a good marriage right now, obviously there are two people in the marriage, okay? and the problem could be one of the marriage team, or it could be both, one way or the other. But the whites have to ask the question, is my behavior, my attitude, my speed, towards my husband, is it in ways that he would say he has found a good thing? So you have to ask that question.

You know, your attitude, your words, your behavior, could be causing your husband to say, maybe I made a mistake. Maybe I need to get another wife, which I'm not endorsing this at all. But I'm just saying, you know, self-examine how you're treating your husband. What's the atmosphere you're setting in the home? Is the atmosphere warm and inviting and cobbly and friendly and reassuring to your husband? Or is it a battle zone? is it a refrigerator, is it a freezer?

Those are things that each wife has to decide. Likewise, the husbands have their own, they have their own self-examination that they need to conduct and ask themselves some very, you know, serious questions about how they're treating their wife. So it says, Doctor, the part two says, and obtains favor of the Lord.

obtain means to draw out to receive as a gift obtains a gift a favor something that's not earned by merit but it's graciously bestowed by God favor of the Lord divine delight a covenant blessing a smile from heaven folks every every day when I pray morning and night I pray for the morning on class maids pray for you and the thing that i ask god is smile upon them today smile let your face shine upon every member of the morning manacle let your face shine upon them i'm praying for favor to be upon him and that's what this means obtained favor of the lord that that divine delight that that smile from heaven that covers your life

so this favor is not only in a home but it's public and people can see it yes people will see hey that that marriage is blessed by God

all right so what we're learning here is that a righteous marriage is one of the primary ways that God blesses his people on earth. Matthew Henry said, he obtains favor of the Lord. God's special blessing rests on the house where a good wife is found. And Charles Spurgeon said, a good wife is heaven's last best gift to man, the token that God has not forgotten to be gracious. John Gill said he obtains favor from the Lord, the blessing of

pious posterity and a happy home. Okay, so these are, again, it's the indication that God is pleased with the marriage. He's pleased with the home. His favor is upon the marriage and upon the home. So what is, I'll let you take it from here, and you've got some points you want to make about the Hebrew words used in this verse. Yes.

So the Hebrew word for delight or finding favor is the same word that God uses in expressing delight in his son. A wife reflects that delight, right? And, you know, a peaceful whole, a godly hole. The atmosphere is generally set by the wife. I think we can all agree on that. She is the, the the one that really sets the tone for the atmosphere of the home. The husband leads, but in many ways, the wife sets the tone for the atmosphere of the home, the atmosphere for the children. And that's another aspect of finding a good wife, too. This favor is generational. The children of a godly union, of a blessed union like this, there truly are a heritage from the Lord.

So once again, as I mentioned before, this. This verse is like a light on the dashboard. It's a diagnostic tool. A home without favor probably has forgotten who gave the wife. So it's also redemptive and the worst husband. And I've met some really real cards of husbands. But they can still obtain fresh favor by beginning to love as they should. And I've seen that transformation in men's lives.

too. When they choose to start loving their wives as the gifts that God gave them are. But ultimately, the only marriage that perfectly obtains favor in a perfect way is Christ and his church. But that does not mean that we can just sit back and say, well, we're never going to be that perfect. No, we work toward that perfection. Be perfect, even as your father, which is in heaven is not perfect. And so once again, Proverse here is teaching toward the ideal with the realization that we do live in the real world,

we do live with real problems, the real situations or real circumstances, so we're not neglecting any of that, but that we also need to have, and we're always talking about faith here on Morning Manor and we'll have Faith Friday tomorrow, but finding a good wife requires faith finding a good wife requires faith

and I think we're going to see that played out as we discuss more and more about this particular passage All right so doc I'm going to ask you one more question before we move on what if a husband and wife were not saved at the time they got married right is did god lead them together or or did they did they come together on their own and then later ask the lord to bless a marriage that he didn't he didn't arrange right have any thoughts on

that the answer your question is yes okay i believe that uh god brings people together even if they're not saved. And he, you know, I don't understand it. I don't know all the details and intricacies of it. But, you know, the Bible talked about Genesis of man leaving his family to join with his wife's family. And, you know, they become one flesh. Now, it didn't qualify that.

There were no other couples to set the example of. So God set, you know, a principle, the very first couple were married. And, you know, it didn't say that they went to a church and got married or went to City Hall and they got that. But their priest was God himself. Their preacher was God himself. They put the marriage together. They had a garden. They had a garden ceremony.

They sinned. They did sin in their marriage. Eve and her, you know, made a decision. on her own. I believe Adam was standing right there when she did it. So they send together. But you can also be redeemed together too. Okay. So that's the great part about this verse is it doesn't leave you hanging, but it does give you the opportunity to think toward the future that you don't have to be in the situation where you're at right now. Rather than talk about anything to separation or anything like that.

This verse speaks toward staying together because God brought you together and fighting for every fiber of your being to make sure that that is a holy communion before God. Because it's a covenant, Rick. It's a covenant. And this marriage that you're in is meant to be a reflection of that final marriage on the final day.

and he can make any marriage a good thing he can redeem any marriage any marriage he ain't done yet I think a lot of people forget even if they're not safe that when they read marriage vials at their wedding

they made a covenant with God I mean there were three people involved in this ceremony there's the husband wife and God right and the man and woman made a covenant with God in that ceremony. One last word, and this is a word of encouragement to be uplifting to all wives and all future wives. I believe what this is teaching

us is that a godly wife, a god-fearing wife, is the crown of creation restored, that the godly wife is, Eve 2.0. Yes. God said, I'm going to do this again. And I'm going to have women who are born again set free from the curse that came upon Adam and Eve. And so godly women are Eve 2.0, full of grace, full of truth, full of the Holy Spirit. And God is restoring creation. He's working on it every day. Well, let's go down to the next, well, no, I got a couple, we mentioned a couple of the commentators. Doc, I don't know if there's anyone in particular trying to see if we've got a Jim from Cheryl Spurgeon. He said a good wife is heaven's last best gift to man, his angel on earth.

Yeah, and William or not, I echoed your sentiments there, Rick, saying a person's woman is a crown to her husband. And so, you know, I think some of this is obvious, right? But I would say to every one of you that are watching or listening today that there's a promise from God. God likes married. He really does. He really likes marriage.

And he wants people to be married. and so that's how he has chosen to fill the earth he wants us involved in that and the way he set up the order from the beginning from the garden is through marriage and so marriage is a good thing unlike what the culture today says it is marriage for modern man is a burden

a problem you know and you look on TV and movies, very rarely do you see a positive example of a stable marriage? Something to consider there. Why? It's partially a reflection of our times, but is there also an agenda to break down the most basic authority in man? And that's the family, okay? And the world also condemns one of the instructions

God gave Adam and Eve as a husband or wife, go multiply. Right. Multiply. To do the earth. They don't have babies. Yeah. Because the world's today says, no, that's not good.

Don't have any children. World's overpopulated. Stop having babies. By the way, the world is not overpopulated. No. There's plenty of work. There's a lot of room. Well, verse 23, the King James says the poor useth entreaty, but the rich answereth roughly.

The Septuagin says, a poor man speaketh with entreaty, but a rich man answereth roughly. The World English Bible says the poor plead for mercy, but the rich answer harshly. Let's see what we can learn in. this verse. We'll start with the poor uses entreaties. Again, entreaties is not a common word today in modern English language. So I think it makes it difficult for people to understand what this proverb is about. Let's start with the premise that poverty strips people of their dignity. And the poor a person is, the more they're compelled to plead. to beg

to soften their voice to bow their heads in submission to other people they're in such low estate they're so poor that they wouldn't dare offend anybody they're begging, they're pleading

they have their head down they've been robbed of their dignity and so these are the entreaties okay that a poor person has to plead but remember

what Jesus told us a sermon on the mouth he said blessed are the poor and spirit the poor and spirit are those humans who recognize that they are spiritually

morally bankrupt and then what do we do we're pleading we're pleading to the Lord for mercy mercy that our sins be forgiven mercy that we be strengthened

to live for him so what did the beggars say to Jesus son of David have mercy on me yes that's what the beggars said have mercy on me

the beggars saying you yo Jesus what's going down today He said, Lord, have mercy. So, the publican, God be merciful to me as sinner. It was just a prayer that Orthodox Christians pray throughout today. Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me as sinner. You know, Orthodox Christians pray that prayer probably

hundreds of times throughout the day. Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner. Yes. Chilf Bridges said the poor are often near the kingdom because they've learned to pray

for mercy. Because they're living in a state that requires mercy if they're going to survive, Doc. John Gill said that poverty forces humility, and that's the very posture God requires. So now it makes sense why Jesus said,

Blessed are the poor in spirit, they shall have the kingdom of God. Saying once you realize, when you recognize, it doesn't matter the amount of money you have or your status, your position, anything, once you realize that you are spiritually bankrupt, you're poor in spirit. What are we doing? we're begging God for mercy. Amen.

We're pleading to God to be merciful to us. So, Doc, does need amplify our voices to God? Do we pray louder when we are in desperate condition? Well, yes, it's like having a megaphone, Rick. It turned a proud man into a petition. and it can soften hard hearts into soft hearts. So, you know, in the first part of this verse here, that poor man's, and then King James uses that word in treaty,

but his cry, really, is covenant speech. It's Israel crying out in Egypt to be set free. It's Hannah crying out for a child at Shiloh. It's the church in the midst of persecution around the world. So all these are examples of that crying out, you know, when we're in poverty, when we're a beggar. So oftentimes beggars have the most pure prayer, Rick. There's no pretense. There's no bargaining, just help.

That's it. And it really causes. as you'd reflect, you know, I could be in that same situation. I could be in that same place. I should never speak down to the poor or to the beggar because that's a telling sign that I've forgotten. I would unpoor before God. Jesus himself, we'll talk more about this tomorrow on Faith Friday, Jesus became poor that we might become rich. He was really the only poor person. He divested himself of everything except his divinity. And he never, so he understood that when the beggars came, he understood that. He led legions of angels at his command.

Actually, ended up begging forgiveness for those that were crucifying him, Rick. So ultimately, he was in the position of crying out before God. And what was his last cry to the father? He was praying for somebody else. In his poverty, Rick. So, Don't know, first, 23, chapter 18. This is poor plead for mercy, but the rich answers harshly. Every one of us need to examine

how we respond to people pleading to us. Look, it's not always the poor. This doesn't apply to just the poor. There are situations where somebody is in a great deal of trouble, and they're pleading with you. Please forgive me. Please have mercy to just, please forgive me. How do you respond?

I mean, do you respond harshly or with mercy? Do you say, well, well, those reasons over, I'll be kind, do you? I mean, what's the response? Do you say, get out of here? I don't want to see your face. Don't ever come back here again. It's responding harshly. And it doesn't necessarily mean somebody who's begging on the streets.

It could be somebody who is pleading with you to be merciful. in a situation you don't respond never respond harshly when somebody is pleading for mercy oh you don't you don't want to set a precedent where you're pleading for mercy someday and the lord responds to you harshly so think about how you answer a person yes be merciful be be forgiving be wise but don't be harsh don't condemn somebody

who's asking you to be merciful show them grace show them kindness but never never be harsh never be harsh to someone who is asking for mercy

any thoughts on this doc other than you know what would that attitude that we have in responding to the poor, to the beggar and everything, it's something about the rich man, you know, brushes it off. But you don't have to be rich to brush off a baker, okay? It's to a degree. To the beggar, anybody other than him is rich, right? And so if our attitude toward the beggar or toward the poor is disdain or their problem or something

like that, what's happening is we've forgotten where we were. We're poor. We are in the ultimate place of poverty. There's no way we can offer anything for our salvation. The wages of sin is death. When we cash our paycheck on life, on our own efforts, we look at the cash line there and it says, damn, that's what we get for it. We're in worse shape than the worst beggar in the world. And so if my words toward a needy person are sharp or have disdain, then my heart is probably far from God. And this is, you know, this is one of those dashboard lights.

Once again, you know, we're getting a lot of dashboard lights here in chapter 18, you know, corrections along the way where you could say, well, you're right. You know, those rich people, you know, they treat the poor bad, but what about me? What about my words? And even though Jesus became poor that we may become rich, he was the richest being in the universe. He never answered anyone roughly. Aren't you glad that the richest, wealthiest being in the universe that we can come before him and he'll show us mercy? He doesn't show us disdain.

He doesn't talk down to us. He doesn't talk to us roughly. He doesn't say, get a job, Doc. No, he says, come. Come to me. All you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Okay, so, Doc, what about, you know, what about people that roll down their car window or their truck window and yell at a homeless person begging for food? I think they're going to be held accountable for every idle word that they speak.

Lord's going to hold in his one day and say, hey, remember that day? Doug, I and Susan, I have, there's a couple that the gentleman passed away. The wife, her name is Bill and Debbie, and Susan worked with Debbie 30-some years ago. at the Board of Education and they've stayed friends ever since and Debbie right now is in very poor health Bill passed away I'm going to say sometime back around

somewhere around 2007 2008 fairly young and probably would have been in his 50s But anyhow, Bill didn't have a lot of education, doc. He wasn't a highly educated person, but he was a loving man. He loved the Lord, and he loved people. And he used to do something as a Christian. He would dress up as a beggar.

And he'd get the worst clothes, and he'd put. put some stink on it. I mean, he played the part. And he would visit churches on Sunday morning, dressed as a beggar. He got kicked out a lot. He got kicked out of churches. He often was, if he wasn't kicked out,

he was ordered to sit in the back pew. He tried to, sometimes he'd, You know, the church was having a social event, a fried chicken lunch, you know, in the fellowship home. They wouldn't let him in. And he would take note of this.

And what he would do, what he would do is after they would kick him out, he would go get out of that bigger custody and go back to the same. church and say, hey, I'm the beggar you kicked out earlier this morning. And he said there was a lot of repentant. He said there were times that you could just hear the weeping in the church. Sometimes the weeping was coming from the pastor and the elders.

And God broke their heart. Okay. I've never seen an angel. like, dressed like an angel, whatever angels dressed like. Sorry. But I can tell you, Daleks, there's a couple times I look back and I think that that guy was an angel. I really do.

There was just something about the person's appearance. And one that stands out in my mind, this would have been sometime in the late 80s. I was living in Maryland, and it was one of the coldest winters of my lifetime. I mean, the Potomac River was frozen solid. It was cold. And I don't want to say how many degrees below zero, but it was cold for weeks and weeks. It was a bitterly cold, snowy winter. and I remember this Saturday afternoon, I had to mail a letter.

Well, you know what I was mailing? I was mailing an offering to a ministry. I remember I was mailing and offering to a ministry. Oh. And I braved the snow and the ice and the cold weather. And I drove to the post office because I was determined. to get that check in the mail. I desired to, I was doing it by faith.

I'm going to do this. I can't wait to get this. Anyhow, I went into the post office, and this was a big old 1930s Depression-era post office that was built by Roosevelt's work crews. I forget which group, which agency built those post offices. Anyhow, there wasn't, there was a WPA.

You know, the WPA. WPA built it. There wasn't anybody in that post office. And when I walked in, I saw this homeless man standing to the right of the door when I went inside. I didn't say anything. He didn't say anything.

And I went over and I dropped my envelope into the slot and I remember I said Father I'm giving this by faith again this is like 1980 something I turned and I I was walking through the lobby and when I got to the door

where this homeless man was standing and he was standing there all bungled up with this big old furry coat and he was shivering and all he said was I'm pulled and I'm hungry and I walk past him

and I was going down the steps of the post office and the Lord spoke to me and he said not every offering to me has to go to a church and ministry rig when you feed hungry people when you take care of the cold you're doing it to me Rick and I stopped

stopped on the steps the steps were I mean it was snowing dog I stopped I said Lord whatever I got in my pocket I'll go back in there and give it to that man

and I turned and I went back in and there was nobody there there there was only one door Okay I ran back out on the steps And I'm looking down Up and down the street

There's nobody on the street There's nobody on the sidewalk I'm like Where did he go? Yes There was no way out of this foyer Except that door that I went out of There's no way down to the sidewalk

Except these steps Where did he go I am absolutely convinced to this day he was an angel and God was testing Rick is your heart soft enough will you go back in and feed that man but the angel disappeared it was a pop quiz

yes I passed the test Doc the very fact that I turned to go back in was passing the test because I heard the Lord's voice you know not every gift that you sin has to go to a church or ministry when you feed the poor

when you help those who are in need you're offering to me so do not talk to a poor person harshly be kind to them doesn't mean you you take them down to your bank and tell them to withdraw anything you got that's not what

it means don't talk harshly harshly indicates the state of your heart okay amen it's it's it's the harshness in your heart that god's dealing with here in this verse don't speak harshly um so let's go down we got one more verse this is a short one today um Alexander McLaren said, The poor learned to plead, the rich learned to scorn. How one bites, doesn't it? G. Campbell Morgan says that God teaches by need or by judgment. By need or by judgment.

McLearn also said wealth hardens the heart and the tongue. Wow. and Cheryl Spurgeon said Many a man's tongue has been roughened by his purse

being lined Spurgeon I love Spurgeon The only cigar smoking pastor I ever know I didn't know a man He died a long time ago

But he was a cigar smoker Okay What a powerful preacher, wasn't they? So we've talked about having a good wife. We've talked about our attitude toward beggars. Okay. Where is verse 24 going to take us now, Rick? Friends.

I'll talk about friends. King James says, A man that hath friends may come to ruin, but there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother. Septuagin says a man that have many friends may be harmed thereby but there is a friend that is a closer friend than a brother and the Aramaic Pachita says there are friends who are merely friends and then there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother right so let's let's start with the first part a man that hath friends may come to ruin

a man of friends it literally means a man of many companions many friendly acquaintances surrounded by people and yet in danger lots of names on his contact list yes that's a net worker, news people everywhere, but not really friends. He would say that they're friends. I got friends everywhere. Look at my contact list. Look at all these friends I have. But what Solomon has said, now you have a lot of companions, you have a lot of acquaintance, but they're not friends. A friend is one that sticks closer than a brother in hard times. In difficult times, when everybody else leaves you, when everybody else desert you, the friend is the one who stays.

So quantity is not quality. Quantity of friends can be a delusion. In other words, crowds at the party and nobody at your funeral. Boy, that's sad. Oh, yeah, you threw parties. You had lots of people at your party, but the day you died, nobody came to your funeral. The only one's going to come to your funeral is your friend.

The one that's stuck closer with you than a brother. All right. So he's talking about fair weather companions. They call them friends as a very loose term. They love the dinner table, they love the party, but they don't love the person. And Doc, sadly, a lot of people constantly socialize to convince themselves that they have friends. Right.

But deep down, they know that none of those people really care about them. It's so very sad. So very sad. Thanks. That's right. Spurgeon said, a man may have a host of friends and yet be friendless, like a tree covered with leaves but no fruit.

And Bridges, Cheryl Bridges said, many friends are like swallows. They come in the summer and fly away in the summer. the winter. Right. Then you have John Gill, John Gill said many campaigns may be a man's ruin. They flatter, spend, and then they leave him. Yeah. So the ruin, the ruin is total. It's financial, it's emotional, it's spiritual, you're wiped out. And you can have many friends in an empty soul. You find out that they're really not your

friends. They're just hearty people. They're just people that like to be around you because you get this activity going on. And they're drawn to the activity, not to you. So, Doc,

what is the Hebrew, what is the English meaning of the Hebrew term may come to ruin. Yeah, really, the English doesn't give us the full, you know, impact of that phrase. Really, from the Hebrew, it means to be shattered. You know, when we think come to ruin, we think, oh, you know, it's gone bad.

No, it, it, your life can be destroyed by many friends. I think it's ironic in this day of social media that we can say we have so many followers on our account, or if you're on Facebook, you have so many Facebook friends. But really, no one has 5,000 friends. Can we admit that no one really has 5,000 friends? There are people that know you, maybe follow you, are aware of you, but. Can you count, really, on maybe two hands? People you genuinely call friends. I mean, genuinely call friends.

Now, you know that if you found yourself in a spot or anything like that, you could pick up the phone and you could say, help. And you would know that they would come. So, you know, this idea of a friend here, you know, Solomon's making a play on this. He said, oh, you know what? You see that guy over there? He's got a lot of friends, but his end is still going to be nothing but trouble.

So if your friends are fair weather friends or they run away during times of trouble or adversity, they weren't friends in the first place. But here's the great part about this verse that we can learn that God can take those friendships and he can redeem them. And he can take those casual friends and he can turn them into covenant friends. Those friends that we're talking about in the second half of the verse

that stood closer than a brother. And the only man who ever came to ruin but had plenty of followers was Jesus himself. I bet when he was preaching the sermon on the mount, he had a lot of friends that day. Yes.

You know, when they were eating, his sandwiches that day, I bet, you know, that Jesus, he's something else. But when it came time to put him on trial, they cried crucified. And even his disciples abandoned him. Think about that. Just a handful, not even five people were at the foot of the cross for Christ. Didn't even make five. And so Christ understands that. Christ understands that. Christ understands that abandonment and everything. And yet, in the new testament, what is he called, Rick? A friend that what?

Sticks closer than a brother. And so the second half of this verse is not only wisdom, it's also prophetic about Jesus, isn't it? Yes. Yes. And so once again, he is our role model. Jesus is your savior, your redeemer, your Lord, your master, your king.

but he's also your role model and he is your elder brother he is your brother and he's your friend he said so he said I did call you servant but now I call you friend okay Jesus Christ is your friend

and he considers you to be his friend and Jesus is a friend who sticks closer than a friend brother. Yeah. But he's also your brother. Yeah. But he's closer than just a brother. It's just amazing who Christ really is. I mean, as brothers growing up, you're close, you know each other's secrets. You know what grinds their gears. You know everything about them, right? Especially if you're an older brother. You use that against your younger brothers. I'm guilty of that. But there's a friend that is closer than even kin

than a brother, someone that you're so intimate with that knows everything about you and yet still loves you. Okay, it's interesting you said it like that because the Hebrew word for sticks closer it's the same word for the cleaving of a husband and wife. Yeah, back in Genesis 2. Yes. An unbreakable bond.

So we think that a husband and wife, that's the closest relationship that you can have between humans, but the same word is used. And Jesus or Solomon here is saying, look, you can have a friend who sticks closer than a brother. You can have someone who literally becomes, It's like two bodies and one soul It's two bodies, two different people

And yet they become one soul They're so close They can feel the presence of the other one They can be separated by miles And know something's wrong with my friend Yes Nothing's happening with my friend They can feel it

And they just know because they become, there's a bonding, there's a uniting, and it's, it's, it's, you know, it really is, it's supernatural. And this is, and then we have to understand it, Jesus is that friend. The great, when you go through something, when you go through some tragedy, some testing, some, something very, very difficult. And when you go through that situation and you discover that Jesus Christ is there with you, don't ever say, God, where are you? You deserted me. Oh, he's with you. He's with you. He doesn't desert you. He'll never leave you or forsake you. Yes, he's with you. He's deserted on the cross, Rick, by his friends, by those who, his followers, and even by the father himself.

Even by the father. And yet, he sticks closer than a brother to us. That's right. So when everybody deserts you, even family, Christ will stay there with you. He'll never leave you. He'll never forsake you. He will not condemn you.

And he'll stick with you until you're back up on your feet and recover. You know, one of the greatest examples of human friendship in the Bible was King David and Jonathan. Yes. They loved each other. Now, you know, the homosexual movement has tried to say, well, there's proof. Jonathan and David were gay. And they weren't gay?

Just because two men loved each other doesn't mean they're gay. they weren't having sex, right, but their souls were united. Their souls were knitted together, and they loved each other, not romantically, not sexually, but they loved each other as brothers, as deeply connected friends. They were united together. And, you know, it's a great example in the Bible. that we should, each of us should have. If you're a man, you should have a male friend that's that close.

If you're a woman, you should have a female friend who is that close to you. Like the closest sister you can imagine, the closest brother you've ever imagined. Jesus Christ is our role model. But not only is he a role model, he's also your brother and your friend. A role model, look, good. There are role models I'll never meet in my life. There are people in this world. Hey, I can look at that person.

That person's a role model. But I'll never meet them. Jesus is more than a role model. He is my friend and he is my brother. And I have met him and I meet him every day. And he is, I can tell you, he stays with you. and it doesn't matter the pain that you're going through, Christ is there with you.

He will stay with you until you recover. I think this is speaking to somebody right now. Somebody is going through a very difficult time, and you may have months to go. You may have a year to go until there's full recovery. You must know Christ is with you. He will be with you 24-7. Amen.

And not only until you recover, he stays with you after you recover. He doesn't leave, but don't feel like you're in this situation by yourself. Satan wants you to believe you by yourself. Satan will tell the people, hey, there's no hope. Everybody's left you. Shoot yourself, die. Pop some pills. Jump off a bridge.

Do something. Nobody cares. Nobody loves you. Your mother doesn't love you. Nobody likes you. Get out of here. They're all lies from Satan. You have to be able to say, no, I have a Savior who loves me.

He will never leave me nor forsake me. He is my friend who sticks closer with me than my brother. See, it is impossible to be alone. Satan may be tormenting you with feelings of loneliness. But I'm here to tell you, you cannot be alone. It's impossible to be alone once you enter into the presence of Almighty God. Yes. You'll never be alone once you know that you're in the presence of Almighty God.

And I'm thinking about the last week. I was thinking back to last week, Rick, where we talked about that brother that was born for adversity. Remember that? And Charles Bridges talked about that. He said, this friend is Christ. That's that brother. born for adversity. That's the friend that sticks closer than a brother. That's that brother that is destined to be something in our lives. So there's, John Gill said there's a friend

Christ who loves at all times, Rick. Amen. Amen. Matthew Henry said, but there's a friend that is to give closer to a brother, such a one is Jesus Christ. And Adam Clark said A man of many friends may come to ruin superficial friendships fail in need Charles Bridges says A man of many friends may come to ruin

They are friends only in the sunshine Fairweather friends Okay So you get the message It's Jesus Christ He is Your Savior Your Redeemer

Your king Your master Your Lord He's also your friend And your brother Your family And the message I would also like to share

With our audience Whether you're watching or listening Today Do you have any covenant relationships in your life Do you? Do you really, do you have a lot of connections, a lot of companions, a lot of, you know, friends? We were made for covenant relationships, whether it's a marriage, whether it's covenant friendships.

I would encourage you, if you don't have a covenant friendship in your life, first of all, marriage is the perfect place to live this out. you could be friends in a marriage. There's no law against that at all. But do you have covenant friendships outside of marriage? I mean, covenant friendships. I'm not talking about friends at work or friends at the bridge club

or the bowling league, stuff like that, but real friends. Friends, not only that you can depend on, but they can depend on you. And are you doing anything to cultivate that relationship? You know, Christ did for us. He died so he could have that stick of clothes through than a brother relationship with us. How far are we willing to go in order to invest in covenant relationships in our life?

This is a great question to ask ourselves today, Rick. Yes. And do you treasure your friendships? Do you treasure them? Are they meaningful to you? you know the lord um the lord challenged me in a gentle way a couple months ago doc um without giving out a name there was there was a person um there was a person on television a religious christian person and many years ago I said Lord

I would love to have that man as a friend and years later I don't even know how it happened I got introduced to this man and we became friends and I think about it when he calls when I'm talking to him

when I'm thinking this all started with a prayer This all started with me saying, Lord, I'd like to have that man as a friend. And the Lord answered that prayer. But, Doc, a couple months ago, the Lord gently brought his name to me and said, Rick, when's the last time you've called him? Do you value the gift that I gave you?

You requested friendship. When's the last time you've called him? Doctor, this is as true as anything, this really just happened. This was at night. And I said, well, Lord, it's kind of late right now to call. I'll call him in the morning. Okay, and I'm absolutely meant to do it. Okay?

I absolutely intended to call him. And so in the morning, I'm drinking my coffee. And I'm, you know, I'm looking at it and thinking, well, I don't know what time here in the morning to call it. call somebody too early and my phone rang and it was him it was the same man and he said rick the lord told me to call you i haven't talked to you for a long time wow see god was talking to both of us saying hey strengthen that friendship strengthen that bond all right treasure that friendship right the lord is saying i put the two of you together you haven't talked to each other for a while

So that's what I'm asking you right now Who is it that's in your life That God placed there You haven't called him for a while Just give him a call and talk to him And tell them as a friend How much you appreciate their friendship Okay

Tom can go by Time can go by Doc, I recently I was thinking of somebody That Actually somebody used to work for us And we were friends When he was when he worked for me

And I thought, I haven't talked to him for a while. Let me just give him a call. We stayed, you know, friendly after he left employment. He moved back to his home state. And I went on my phone. And I looked at the last time I texted him, and it was several years had gone by. And I was like, no way.

No way. We live and talk for several years. See, this is Don't let that happen Okay Don't let that happen in your life Keep those friendships If you have someone as a friend

Keep that friendship Tight And You know Solid And nurture it Because you're going to need them someday That's right

You're going to need them someday The fair weather friends will take off You need those real friends that you have in your life. All right, that's it for me, Doc. We'll be back tomorrow with the final lesson for 2025. That's right. We invite you to be here with us tomorrow for Faith Friday.

We're going to be talking about Jesus becoming poor so we can become rich, but we'll be having a different perspective on and most of the modern folks view it. And so we invite you to be here tomorrow. We're going to be talking about that on Faith Friday. I want to remind you, it's, you know, tomorrow is going to be our last time together this year. It won't be our last time together for Morning Manna, but it'll be our last time together this year. And so I want to encourage you, be a friend of this ministry, if you don't mind. Help us out as we approach the end of the year.

Keep us in mind as you think about your financial commitments in the coming year, your prayer commitments in the coming year. be a friend to us, okay? Be a friend that sticks closer than a brother. We've had a lot of fair weather friends over the past year or two that have flung the coop, okay? You talk with us. As we're asking for financial support, don't respond harshly. Okay, I won't.

Yes. No, I'm talking about the, I'm talking about our thing. Yeah, don't respond to harshly. Remember, that's the first part of the lesson today. Be kind. And so we need your support. I encourage you. Prayerfully consider supporting the work that we do here. Ask the Lord what he would have you to do. That's all we're asking. Just ask the Lord what he would have you to do and then do what he tells you to do. We'll leave it with him. How about that? That's good. That's good. All right, everybody. We love to see you tomorrow. Take care. I bless you. Bye-bye.