“Friendship Wisdom” - Proverbs 27:6-10; Ecclesiastes 4:9-12

• “Do not forsake your friend and your father’s friend, and do not go to your brother’s house in the day of your calamity.” (v.10)

• “A man of many companions may come to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.” (Proverbs 18:24)

1.     Discerning true friends

• “Faithful are the wounds of a friend; profuse are the kisses of an enemy.” (v.6)

• “A dishonest man spreads strife, and a whisperer separates close friends.” (Proverbs 16:28)

2. Deepening friendship

a. Through humility

• “Then Jonathan said to David, ‘Go in peace, because we have sworn both of us in the name of the Lord, saying, ‘The Lord shall be between me and you, and between my offspring and your offspring, forever.’” (1 Samuel 20:42)

b. Through mutuality

• “Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another.” (Proverbs 27:17)

• “And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him – a threefold cord is not quickly broken.” (Ecclesiastes 4:12)

c. Through transparency

• “Better is open rebuke than hidden love.” (Proverbs 27:5)

3.  Developing life-giving friendship

• “Oil and perfume make the heart glad, and the sweetness of a friend comes from his earnest counsel.” (v.9)

• “No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.” (John 15:15)

• “Greater love has no one that this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.” (John 15:13)