Steve Manda - August 9, 2026
/Transcript
Well, good morning, everyone. This morning, we want to think about friendship in the book of Proverbs. So let me ask you, we had a half hour break, right? How many people did you shake their hand and say, hey, it's good to see you?
Pat them on the back. Boy, I missed you this week. How many of you just reached out to be a friend to the guys over here in coffee, break time, friendship, and making it practical? OK, I want to start out with this conference.
I asked prayer this last week for a conference they were having in Indonesia. So let's look at some of the pictures of the conference and just be thankful for what the Lord did for those three days. So Indonesia, where Lois and I worked for 35 years, and John was over there also for a number of years. Anyway, how do I get this to forward?
There you go. OK, so you make five plane trips to get to Borneo, actually up to the jungle area where we live. And then you have to get on a boat like this and travel for three hours up a major river. And right now, it's kind of flood water season, a lot of rain going on right now.
So sometimes you get to the rapids and you got to get out and walk around while they drag the boat, pull the boat, just maneuver the boat through the rapids. And then you load back into the boat to continue your journey on to, in this case, to where the conference was being held. So we got up to the village, way up in the jungle. And the welcoming committee was glad to have all the visitors there.
And so they give you some tokens and some drink just to refresh you as you get ready to enjoy the three-day conference. And now, having 200 people there, somebody's got to cook food for those folks. So you can imagine cooking over open fires and big vats and things to prepare enough rice and other things. So we're very thankful for the women and their ministry of just providing the physical needs for us to be able to enjoy the time up there.
So it was a three-day conference. We had about 200 folks, people there, plus visitors. So it was just a great time of studying God's word. And the theme of the conference was, don't be carried by the rapids.
Don't be carried by the stream downriver. Don't be carried downriver. Go against the flow, meaning don't just go along with what's going on in society. Think about what you're doing and just do what God wants you to do, even though it may be hard.
So that was the thing they talked about for three days. And you think about, OK, fine, they have McDonald's up there. They have all these stores. You can just go and buy stuff, negative.
Somebody has to get some money to buy the supplies they need. And then they would go ahead and cook it. And these people in this particular area, they are gold hunters. Now, I don't know if any of you have ever tried to pan for gold, but what this lady is doing here, and they'll get the sand and stuff off the bottom of the river, and they just move it around, hoping that there's some gold particles in there.
So they did that to get the money to help provide for this. Another way that they'll get money is cutting rubber. John, did they have that down where you were? Yeah.
You take a little thing, and you cut grooves in the tree every day. And you can see that kind of heart shape, big section there. That's about, I would imagine, three weeks or maybe a month's worth of cutting. They cut a groove every day.
The white rubber sap comes down and goes into that little thing in the bottom. So they did that in our tribe also. OK, wild pig, that's what these ladies have here. So not only rice, but some of the guys go out, and they will get pig.
There is a time of the year where the pig will migrate, so they can see them swimming in the rivers, and they'll get them that way. Been there, done that. Some of these people in this tribe, you don't want to mess with them. I didn't even challenge this lady to arm wrestle, but they are strong women.
It is a mountainous area, so anyway, it's good that they're able to live in an environment like that. Now, one of the things they did at the conference, this fella here, Dave Circe, he worked with this tribe, the Punan tribe, for 40 years. And while they were there, the last day they had a burying of his ashes. His daughter Rachel, who's still up there translating the Bible, she's almost done translating it into this language.
She brought her dad's ashes back. He died in America about three years ago, maybe, I'm not sure. But she brought them back to the tribe, and he had requested that when he passed away, he would like his ashes to be buried with his friends, with his family up in the jungle area. So that's what they did here.
I were just honoring Dave, and they made a place for him. So they prayed for just the family for encouragement and stuff. They prayed for the believers that they would live a life like Dave lived, and then they buried him in this little gravesite and covered him up. So he's up there in the graveyard with all the other tribal believers in that particular tribe.
OK, now, one of the needs-- I got about three more slides. One of the big needs we have in that work up there in that whole area-- there's about five language groups-- is youth leaders, twice a week. I think it's twice a week. They have youth meetings with the high school kids, the college kids, probably 35 to 40 kids, but they need a committed missionary family, either Indonesian or American, that would take this on, take this ministry on, and teach these kids every week.
So they are praying for a family to do that. Now, here's another need. This small church building with all these folks here gathered is one of the churches we administered to for about 20 years while we were up there. And they want to expand the church.
So the back wall, they want to push it back another 13 feet. And the front wall here, they want to go the opposite direction, 13 feet. The sides will stay the same. So you're looking at about $3,500 worth of expenses.
And then they're going to go out in the jungle with their chainsaws and cut the wood part of it, but they'll have a lot of cement work to do. So they're going to need about $3,500. Lois and I are going to be making a donation to help with that, and they hope to get started on this project in the next probably three or four months. So anyway, just appreciate your prayers as they expand this church building.
OK, my favorite slide. You remember, I've been asking prayer for our granddaughter Selah. She's 2 and 1/2 years old. She's one with a brain tumor, and she's been doing chemotherapy for about five months now.
And that's my daughter Kim with her daughter Selah. So continue to pray for Selah. She's still got about eight to nine months to go. The doctor said it is shrinking, so they're encouraged.
But it's just been a long trial for them to go through. And this is the rest of the family, Lois and I. Lois goes over there probably two, three times a month, and she helps babysit the other kids who you can see in the front. There's Patch the Pirate sitting there in the front.
But anyway, she babysits the other kids while Selah is doing her chemo treatment, and that's her family on the back. So the last thing I just wanted to mention was our Bible school up in Walker Shaw, Wisconsin. They have a record number of students this coming semester. So they're praising the Lord, and they're also asking prayer as they get ready to teach this next semester.
So just pray for the Bible school there in Walker Shaw, Wisconsin. OK, that's all I had. So can we turn this off now? OK, how do we turn it off?
There you go. OK. Friendship. Who are my friends?
You know, wouldn't it be great? I think I was mentioned this morning that Jesus is our friend. We sang a couple of songs about Jesus being our friend, but wouldn't it be great if we could just realize and see him in person right now? I would say, boy, Lord, I need your help.
Thank you, Lord, that I have this chance, but I ask you to guide this meeting. But just to experience his person, his presence, in our lives and realize, man, you are the best friend I could ever have, Lord. Thank you. Thank you.
Anyway, he is with us all the time, and he is our friend. And I'll mention a couple of verses about him saying, I don't call you servants anymore, but I call your friends. But we'll come to that later. OK, I want to go through some of the verses that were pointed out in Proverbs about this theme of friendship.
Proverbs 11:14 says, for lack of guidance, I would recommend you don't look at these verses. I'm just going to go down through them real quick, but you're welcome to if you can keep up. Proverbs 11:14, for lack of guidance, a nation falls. But victory is won through many advisors.
You know what? Our country needs guidance. Our country needs godly input into all the things that we're facing right now. And many advisors, not only for a country, but us individually.
And so I ask myself, how many friends do we have that we openly share our hearts with about our lives, about what's going on? How many people do you-- hey, can I talk to you a minute? I just want to share my heart. You really need your thoughts, I need your input, I need your prayers, I need your concern.
But we need many folks that we can interact with, many friends that we can just go through life with and be an encouragement to, and them also to us. So again, the Lord is our best friend, and we need to keep coming to the Lord all the time. Lord, I need you in this situation. I need your help.
OK, 13.20, Proverbs 13:20, walk with the wise and become wise, for a companion of fools suffers harm. So walk with the wise. I think we can all say, thank you, Lord, for the family of God. Thank you for the Akal Bible.
Thank you for the friends back at the homes in Samford. Thank you for the people back in Indonesia that we can interact with. And just thank you for the people you bring along to encourage me and to help me, help us in our walk with the Lord. Now the opposite side of that idea of friendship, companion of fools.
Honestly, guys, you look at our society, and I'm thinking especially of our colleges, secular colleges. A lot of Christians are going to these schools, and they're getting drawn away from the Lord. Honestly, my own daughter, my oldest daughter, who lives now in Missouri, she went to College of the Ozarks, a very good Bible school, went four years. But her last year, she met a guy that lived in the community there.
She got interested in him, and they ended up getting married. Well, he was an ex-Jehovah witness. He's not practicing now, but they don't go to church anymore. They don't have anything to do with religious things.
But they're doing well, but companion of fools. I'm not calling my son-in-law a fool, but he is an unbeliever, and it drew my daughter away from him. So we just need to be encouraging our kids, Jonathan, and Micah, and you other guys, encouraging them to have friends that know the Lord, and it can be an encouragement to you. Because honestly, this satanic attack is real in all of our lives, but especially in our secular colleges.
OK, 1717. A friend loves at all times-- personally, I would say, well, most of the time-- loves at all times, and a brother is born for a time of adversity. And I think the encouragement there is a friend is going to say, hey, look, I know what you're going through. I know that wasn't easy.
I know you blew it there, but I want to be an encouragement. I want to help you. I've been there, I've done that, and I just want to encourage you and help you. So we are thankful for the friends that understand what we're going through and want to take the time to help us walk through it.
So what times of adversity do we face in our Christian walk today? And I think the biggest one that we all face is social media. How many of us, how many hours a day do you spend looking at Facebook, looking at WhatsApp, just looking at things that you think, well, that might be interesting to look at that? We spend way too much time on social media.
Anyway, one thing I remember-- it used to be maybe 15 years ago of bumper stickers. There used to be lots of Christian bumper stickers about all kinds of things. Driving on the interstate, you'd see that all the time. You hardly see it anymore.
I think our society is moving away from being a prominent influence and outright sharing God's word in one way or another, and we're just being afraid to express our walk with the Lord. Another thing I think we see is when you do get on the internet and you look at different things, what starts popping up in advertisements and stuff like that? A lot of times, it's what you were just looking at. I was looking at car insurance the other day, so trying to get what's a good rate and stuff like that.
Well, then on my Facebook and WhatsApp, well, Facebook is popping up advertising about car insurance. So that's happening automatically. Big Brother is watching. So anyway, our society is going downhill.
1824, one who has unreliable friends soon comes to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother. And I think, who's your best friend? Our wives would want to say, don't forget me. I'm with you all the time, so I should count as your best friend.
Well, sometimes we spend time with other people. I don't say we don't spend more time with our wives. They're definitely our best friend, but sometimes we don't treat them as our best friend. We just treat them as a companion.
But anyway, I've mentioned earlier that I spend a lot of time on Facebook and WhatsApp, just looking at my friends back in Indonesia, hearing what's going on, asking for prayer requests. And I don't spend as much time with my own personal family. I've got two brothers and a sister that are still alive, and we might interact maybe once every couple of months. So it's not very often, but my friends as far away as Indonesia daily.
OK, 27/6, Proverbs 27/6, wounds from a friend can be trusted when an enemy multiplies kisses. So wounds, we conceive faithfulness to a point when something in our life is not right, or what the Bible says, our friend will come along and just encourage us to think about what the Lord would have and just point out maybe how we can change in some areas. In the mission, we call it personal ministry. You have a one-on-one personal ministry.
It can be good, or it can be challenging. But don't forget, your wife is the one that will have the most personal ministry in my life. The other day, she mentioned something. I don't remember what it was.
Well, OK, here it is. Here it is. Now, just forget who said this, all right? And you guys sitting right here close to me.
She was sitting in the car. We're coming here. She said, I think you need to put that shirt in the wash the next time I wash. I don't notice it.
But your wife, she points out things. That's an easy thing to point out. Sometimes she'll say, you know, the way you were, that was really coming across hard, but what you just said there. So be careful how you come across.
Anyway, our wives will have personal ministry in our lives and just to be an encouragement to us. OK, 27/9, this goes along with a dirty shirt. Perfume and incense bring joy to the heart, but not a dirty shirt. And the pleasantness of a friend springs from their heartfelt advice.
The pleasantness of a friend springs from their heartfelt advice. So friends do sincerely care for us. They want to encourage us. And even last night, before I went to bed, I went to my friend's house.
And I said, John, would you pray for me? I'm going to be speaking tomorrow at church. So he took about five minutes and just prayed for me. Just said I would just be encouraged and I'd be able to get through the message that God laid on my heart.
But he's a friend that I can count on to help me out and just pray for me. OK, one practical aspect of friends, they do things for one another to show appreciation. OK, when's the last time you thought of Mary, Martha's sister, Lazarus's sister? When she went to Jesus, she kneels down before him.
And in her heart, she's saying, Lord, I know what you're going to do for me, thank you. And what does she do? She washes his feet. She wipes his feet with her hair.
She uses perfume, it says. So she's honoring her friend, the Lord Jesus. And saying, thank you, Lord. And then Jesus turns around as a friend.
I no longer call you servants, but I call you my friends. And what did he do with the disciples the day before he was arrested? He had them sit down and he went one by one and he washed their feet, saying, I love you. Thank you for following me.
I know it's not going to be easy, but I am just looking out for you, and I am honoring you, and I'm just showing you that I appreciate all that you're doing and all that you're going to do. Most of them gave their lives to follow the Lord. So the Lord was thanking them for that. OK, the last one I had was in 2717.
As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another. OK, I don't know if you've ever seen somebody work metal to form a machete or form an axe. We saw that in the early days in the tribe. They would have a big fire pit and somebody would be cranking a fan to get the fire going really hot.
And he would just have a stick of metal. They used to use springs out of a car. They'd be under springs, and they'd take one slice of that spring. And they would make machetes out of that.
It's good metal. But it's a lot of work to get that thing red hot and then beat it to form it into the shape of a machete. So I'm thinking iron sharpens iron. Well, we need to be thinking about how can I be an encouragement to others.
Maybe not like that, but seriously think, how can I be an encouragement to my friends? How can I be an encouragement to, like Gregory said, people that don't know the Lord. How can I reach out to them and really take it seriously and do what I can to share God's word with these people? So the big idea is the people that you walk with, that you're friends with, will be a big influence in where you end up and the things you do in your life and how you spend your time and what you do.
So let's go on to thinking about friends and how we can be an encouragement to our friends. So we'll spend eternity together with our friends if they know the Lord. We will have no regrets for what we could have done for the Lord. We will say, I did all that I could for the Lord, hopefully.
We will wish we had encouraged each other more to have the Lord's priorities in our lives. And I think when we get to heaven, we'll say, boy, I wish I had done this. Or, wow, now that I realized what the Lord was doing there, I could have done more in that situation. But anyway, friends, how can we be friends and be available for the Lord to use us?
OK. OK, I will mention some of the friends I have at the homes, our retirement community. We do get together every Friday morning for about an hour, about eight to 10 of us. And we pray about different situations.
So we'll be sharing different prayer requests and stuff and then just pray. So we try to do that. Every day, we have coffee break at 10 o'clock in the morning, at 3 o'clock in the afternoon, down at the clubhouse, and also at the dining hall. So that's a time to just be encouraged in fellowship and spend time together and just be a help to one another.
In Hebrews 10, 24, and 25, it says, "Let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of not meeting together, not doing things with other people, being a loner, but encouraging one another and all the more as you see the day approaching." And Romans 1 has said this, "For I have longed to visit you so I can bring you some spiritual gift." Now, this is Paul talking to his friends in Rome. I want to bring you a spiritual gift and help you grow strong in the Lord.
That should be our desire also. Who are we helping to grow strong in the Lord? When we get together, I want to encourage you in your faith, but I also want to be encouraged by yours. That's Romans 1, 11, and 12.
In 1 Thessalonians 5, it says, "So encourage each other. Build each other up just as you are already doing." OK, thinking about Paul, the Bible does mention about 26 different people. Actually, it's in Romans.
I think it's the last chapter in Romans. He lists a bunch of people that he says, say hi to this person. Do this for that person because they were special to me. So here's some of the ones he mentions.
Loving his neighbor as himself. He mentions Silas. I'm not going to mention the verses. Who was a leader in the early church and a companion of Paul on his second missionary journey.
He also was imprisoned with Paul and Philippi where their prayers and hymns led to a miraculous earthquake and the conversion of the jailer who was watching them in the jailer. So that was Silas. And then you look at Timothy. And he says this about Timothy.
He calls him a spiritual son. And he says, "I have no one else like-minded who will genuinely care for your welfare." So Timothy had a real heart to be an encouragement to Paul and to others. He mentions Luke, the beloved physician who is a loyal friend and companion of Paul.
And he's traditionally credited with writing the Gospel of Luke in the book of Acts. And it's noted that when Paul is in prison, Paul writes, "Only Luke is with me." And he detailed the account of how Luke was an encouragement to Paul in his ministry. Epaphroditus would bring gifts to Paul during his time in prison.
And Paul described him as "my brother, fellow worker, and a fellow soldier." In Onesophorus, he said, "He often refreshed me and was not ashamed of my chains." So anyway, these are just some of the ways that Paul's friends encouraged him. You know what?
I got too much here to get through. So how did Paul encourage people in person? He would let them know that he appreciated them. He let other people know what he thanked the Lord for in different people's lives.
He wrote letters. He prayed for them. He modeled friendship with them. So he just encouraged people in many different ways, many different aspects.
Should I mention my oldest friend that I have over there, Orrin Green? 99 years old. We played pool the other night. And he's learning.
He's letting me beat him now. In the early days, he was every man for himself. But 99 years old. And that guy, he served 20 years in Columbia on the Orinoco River.
And I think 30-some years as a counselor and encourager for missionaries all over North America, actually. So anyway, I appreciate Orrin. He's going downhill little by little. We don't play golf anymore.
He doesn't ride a three-wheel bike anymore. But I want to be an encouragement to Orrin and just thank him for his life and let him know that we appreciate him. So anyway, OK, here's some random thoughts. And I'll take a couple of minutes.
And then we'll go ahead and close. So when you think about your friends, you usually think, well, that's somebody you would go up to and put your arm around them, give them a handshake, just show them physically that you appreciate them and you missed them. You would say, hey, how's it been going? I've been thinking about you.
And just wondered how I can be a help to you. Is there anything you need done? Let me know. I know one person sitting in the room right now, he mentioned that he is extremely grateful for our dear friends at Lake Hill Bible Chapel.
He says they are genuine, caring, loving. They put up with my shenanigans with zero judgment. Maybe they'll give me a lecture from time to time, but I can put up with it. Is that right, Dan, about like that?
Oh, I didn't mention to mention. Be specific. Anyway, it's true. We do have a lot of good friends here at the chapel.
OK, thinking about friends, high school. How many of you still have high school friends? I graduated high school in 1968, OK. I still have friends from my neighborhood that I grew up in.
I keep in touch with them on Facebook and stuff. And we were there a couple of months ago up in New York. And I got to visit with them and thank them. And even yesterday, I talked to one of my friends that I grew up with in high school.
And we talked about what's going on. And he's kind of gotten away from the Lord. But we still visit with him and I encourage him. And his mom lives up here in Jacksonville, is it?
From here, not far up there? What is it? The main town-- well, it doesn't matter. But anyway, she lives about two hours from here, right before you cross into-- is it Georgia, South Carolina?
The main town up there, the big city. Yeah, anyway. So I was talking to him about his mom, because I tried to call her and she wasn't answering. But he said she's doing good.
And she's about 95 years old right now. So just keeping in touch with friends from the old days. OK, let me close with this. Christian friends and Jesus calling us a friend.
John 15:5, he says this, "I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends. For everything that I learned from my father, I have made known to you." So Jesus was just thanking the disciples for them following him for three years and letting them know that he'll be thinking of them and just encouraging them in this way.
So this occurrence just reminds us that Jesus is the vine where the branches. And it just shows us that as we remain in the vine, we can bear spiritual fruit. So thankful for what Jesus did here. And by calling his disciples friends, he was letting them know that he would be available to share divine truth with them and insights, and just to be all that he could with them through the Holy Spirit in their ministries.
And again, like I mentioned earlier, 11 out of the 12 gave their lives for the Lord's service. OK, so I'll finish with this. "I call you friends," Jesus said. So this is a profound relational connection we have with the Lord.
Believers are no longer merely servants executing commands. They are trusted companions who share in the knowledge of God's will, called to live in love, obedience, and intimate fellowship with our Lord Jesus Christ. This friendship invites Christians into a deeper understanding of God and a preparatory role in his work in the world. OK, let's close in prayer.
Again, Lord, we do thank you for our relationship with you. That you do care for us, even when we do fall short so many times. We don't always think of what you would do in any situation. We think of, well, what comes natural, what habits we have.
But we ask, Lord, that you would guide us, help us to be sensitive, and to be available, and to be used of you in our lives. So again, we thank you, and just commit the rest of our time to you, both the potluck and then the men's meeting later. We commit our time to you. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.
Thank you.
