Speaker: All right, well, let’s everybody stand up Stand up for Jesus I’ve changed my sermon exactly four times in the last 45 minutes

And you better pray I get settled because if I don’t, we’re going to be here a long time, friend But I think I’ve got it settled I’d already glued in on one sermon before the choir sang, and then I got to looking at all the young people

And even though the message tonight is just as much for the mamas and daddies and grandmas and grandpas as it is to the young people, It’s a particular message applying to young people And so the Lord just kind of impressed me with it when I saw the choir sang and saw how many young people were here And I want to bring you, I’m reaching back and getting an old message tonight, but one that I believe the Lord is leading in

And I’m open here to 2 Samuel chapter 13 And it came to pass after this that Absalom, the son of David, had a fair sister whose name was Tamar, and Amnon, the son of David, loved her And Amnon was so veck that he fell sick for his sister Tamar, for she was a virgin

And Amnon thought it hard for him to do anything to her But Amnon had a friend whose name was Jonadab, the son of Shemaiah, David’s brother And Jonadab was a very subtle man

Now look up at me I’m in a hurry here Let me paraphrase some things or relate to some things and move on

Amnon was the son of King David, the sweet singer of Israel and the king of the greatest army and nation that ever marched And Amnon, being the son of King David, the one who wrote the beautiful Psalms, fell lusting for his own sister Tamar Now, she was his half-sister, but they shared the same daddy

And he fell lusting for his own sister, but he thought it hard to do anything to her for obvious reasons But he had a friend named Jonadab, and Jonadab was a very subtle man And actually, it was Shemaiah, Jonadab’s first cousin to Amnon

And so Jonadab made some suggestions to Amnon on how he could get done what he wanted to do And Amnon followed through with that, and he made himself sick at Jonadab’s suggestion and asked his father to send his sister down to fix him a meal while he was sick And his father, not suspecting anything, as in no parent would, sent her down

The little thing could have been as young as 14 years old And he sent her in to her brother, and he reached up and grabbed her, and the rest of the sad, sickening, sensual, satanic story betters left unsaid except to say that he humiliated her And she ran out

She had an outer garment on her that the king’s daughters who were virgins were appareled with, and she ripped that off of her because she knew she was not a virgin anymore She went down to her brother Absalom’s house and remained there desolate That means she never fell in love

She never got married She never could think right toward boys again That which happened in that chamber with her brother so messed her up mentally that she so sickened her

It so turned her off emotionally It so scarred her emotionally that she couldn’t have normal thoughts as God intends young ladies to have about a husband and a family and children and that kind of thing And so then Absalom flees for his death to keep David from putting him under to death under Jewish law, which led to his rebellion, which led to his death with his long rebellious hair hanging in the form of a great oak tree and three darts through his heart

And then, of course, Amnon’s got a brother, Absalom That’s where his sister fled to when he raped her And she is there at Absalom’s house

And Absalom, before the chapter’s over, takes the threshing instruments and his servants, drives them through the body of Amnon and murders him before the chapter’s over, which leads to his death and his rebellion And somebody asked a question, why all this sick, sickening, sordid, sensual, satanic activity We could talk about a lot of things, but it boils down to five words

And I want to show you those five words in verse number three Well, let’s lead up to it in verse two And Amnon was so vexed that he fell sick for his sister Tamar, for she was a virgin

And Amnon thought it hard for him to do anything to her, but Amnon had a friend But Amnon had a friend He thought it hard, but Amnon had a friend

He had a father, and when he thought about his father, it stopped him, and he would have stayed stopped But he had a friend But he had a friend

But he had a friend named Jonadab, and Jonadab was a very subtle man Amnon had a reputation He had a name

He was King David’s son A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches and loving favor more than silver and gold I’ve been preaching 52 years

And I’m not pretty and never have claimed to be a good preacher, but I do have a good name I worked hard at that But I could stop on my way to my house tonight

I could stop five minutes at the wrong place and tear down everything It’s taken me 52 years to build And neither your pastor nor no other fundamental preacher in the world would want me back in their pulpit

Just five minutes is all it’d take Stacked up against 52 years Takes a lifetime to build a good name

Only five minutes will tear one down And he had a name And when he thought about his name and he thought about who it was, it stopped him

And he would have stayed stopped But he had a friend But he had a friend

but he had a friend named Jonadab and Jonadab was a very subtle man Amnon had a name He had training

He knew the law He knew the Torah, the first five books of the Bible Wherewith shall a young man cleanse his way by taking heed thereto according to God’s word

Thy word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against God And when he thought about doing this sensual, sickening, satanic deed, the word of God like a mighty jackhammer stopped him and he would have stayed stopped but he had a friend

He had a friend He had a friend named Jonadab And Jonadab was a very subtle man Now he’s got a little sister Who can’t live a normal life And now he himself’s got to die By the hand of his own brother Before the chapter’s over And then the one that kills him Has got to die with his rebellious hair Hanging in the forks of a great oak tree And all because he had a friend He had a friend It would never

happen If he hadn’t had a friend I bring you a message tonight Entitled Amnon had a friend Let’s bow our heads in prayer Holy Spirit of God I pray you’ll bless us now as we preach the message Dear Lord Jesus, I pray heaven will swing low tonight I pray, Lord, you’ll come walking into this auditorium and begin to speak to hearts that never counted on having a meeting with God tonight

Save people that need to have another meeting with God No, not a second blessing, not some mystical type outward explosion of some tongue nobody ever heard, but a meeting with God A meeting with God

a realization of giving their life and soul and mind and body to God and making some wise and intelligent decisions Bless us now, O Heavenly Father For we ask it in Jesus’ name

Amen You may be seated, please If I had one message especially to bring to young people tonight and to anybody else that’s here, it would be this one message, Amos 3.3

Can two walk together except they be agreed The obvious answer is no Proverbs 13.20

He that walketh with wise men shall be wise, but a companion of fools shall be destroyed

If you went down to the jail tonight and saw that 25-year-old girl sitting in there with bruise marks up and down her arm, a mainliner that kept popping a needle into her arm in the last seven days, selling her body to wicked men on the street to get enough money for another fix to keep screaming her head off, and you said to her, hey, tell me about your first encounter with drugs Oh, yeah

I was 12 years old, and I was at school, and I knew this girl, and this girl knew this guy, and this guy was into drugs, but she had a friend, but she had a friend, but she had a friend, but she’d go down yonder and find that old boy that got thrown the slammer last night for throwing a barroom stool through a barroom window And he’s sitting in there trying to recover from a drunken stupor And you say, Hey, tell me about your first drink

He’d look up at you and say something to this effect I was only nine years old, and I was over at my neighbor’s house And his mom and daddy was gone and said, come here, let me show you something

And we went over and opened the refrigerator And there in the refrigerator was a tall can of Budweiser But he had a friend

But he had a friend But he had a friend But you show me your friends, I’ll show you who you are

Amnon was filthy, so Jonadab Jonadab was filthy, so Amnon became filthy Jonadab was shady, so Amnon became shady

Jonadab was perverted, so Amnon became perverted Jonadab was filthy Jonadab was sick

Jonadab was perverted in his brain So Amnon became that You are right now or you soon shall be what your friends are

You show me your friends, I’ll show you who you are or what you soon shall be You can drop a teenager down in this church that has never been in the state of North Carolina in their life They can come walking in back there with their mama and daddy

They know nobody in this room They don’t know who’s who or what’s what But in 21 days, if they’re not sitting with their own kind in this room, I’ll eat any chair you’ve got in here, fabric, metal and all

I didn’t ride in here on a load of pumpkins this morning I don’t know everything, but what I know, I know well And I’m here to tell you, it’s not always easy to know where your children are spiritually

Believe you me, I raised seven of them But there’s one thing I could always tell

If I just learned who they wanted to be around Who they wanted to call Who they wanted to hang out with If I just studied who they wanted to take up with I would learn a whole lot about them You bring a girl in here Same with a young man You bring a girl in here And she’ll bounce off those spiritual girls Like a hot potato if she’s a carnal girl But if she’s a spiritual girl She wouldn’t be caught dead

hanging around the car And she knows which is which She knows which is which Now let me ask you a question Who are your friends You show me your friends, I’ll show you who you are or who you soon shall be You show me your friends, I’ll show you which direction you’re going

You show me your friends, I’ll show you which way your heart is looking Oh, yeah And the direction your heart is looking has a whole lot more to do with where you’re going to end up than what you look like tonight

And what you act like tonight I’ve seen some of these little old hippie-looking boys in miniskirt-wearing girls get saved on a Sunday morning And I told my daughters, I said, girls, y’all get to that girl quick as you can

Be friendly to her Invite her over to the house to eat I said, she don’t know much

She don’t know one standard from another, but she saved And, man, she fell in love with the Lord She’ll be coming

She’ll come the right direction I’d rather my children be friends with people that don’t have their standards right but look in the right direction than for my children to be friends with somebody that’s as clean as a houndstooth and yet is looking the wrong direction rotten attitude will poison anybody

I said, rotten attitude will poison anybody And who’s your friends And by the way, this is not just good for teenagers

It’s good for moms and dads too I’m thinking now of a deacon’s wife who came in to see me one day, and she said, Pastor, I don’t know what’s got wrong with me I’m depressed all the time

I’ve lost my joy I don’t know what’s wrong with me I looked across my desk at that deacon’s wife, and I said to her, have you been criticizing me

She said, what do you mean I said, I mean exactly what I said Have you been saying, well, why did the pastor have to vote on this

And why did we have to do that And I don’t see any use in this And I don’t know that the preacher’s right about that

Have you been saying things like that about me She stared at me I said, would you like for me to tell you how I know you’ve been doing it

She went like this I said, I know you’ve been doing it because I know where your car’s been parked three and four mornings a week lately And you couldn’t hang out with that woman as much as you’ve been drinking coffee and hanging out with that woman without getting her ugly spirit

That woman’s got one of the most critical spirits in all of the world You spent too much time with her That’s why you’ve criticized me

You hung around her Let me tell you, whatever you’ve got is contagious You hang around people that come in here and say, It’s just a wonderful place

Have God blessed us Look at this crowd tonight Praise the Lord

In a day when the country’s going to hell, I’m glad there’s an old-fashioned barnstorm in Jesus-loving, devil-hating, heaven-exalting, hell-dethroning, preacher, stand in the pulpit three times a week and run buses and get people saved and a choir that sings to glorify God Hey, isn’t it wonderful to be here

You hang out with people like that, you’re going to get that spirit You’re going to be like that You hang out with people that come in here and say, ah, rats

Don’t even look like a church It looks like a triangle or something Good grief

Why don’t they put some chairs up here at Matt’s something And after all, look, I could have pews and stood a chair and say, ain’t a thing in this world wrong with anything I see here But I’m going to tell you something

You hang out with people who don’t see anything good If you can’t come in this place and see something good, there’s one place for you, and it’s on this altar right here tonight There’s just one place for you

Who are your friends Who are your friends And I’ll tell you something else

Some of you have a sister, and I think you ought to try to win your loved ones And I think you ought to be friendly Some of you have saved sisters

But they don’t go to this church, and they don’t believe what you believe They don’t live like you live and go to the places you go and dress like you do And they think you’re a nut for doing so

And I’m telling you something You got some smart choices to make You can’t live for God

She’s holding you back And some of you fellas, you’ve got your friends at church You come to church

God bless you, brother Amen, brother But then you’ve got other friends that you go off with

Oh yeah And when you get out on the golf course with those other friends And you draw back and come in for a swing And you crack your ankle instead of that ball You don’t say, well, glory to God, hallelujah, praise the Lord You say some other things Amen, come on now, you say some other things Yeah, I’m not just preaching to the children I’m preaching to the daddy rabbits I’m preaching to the mama rabbits tonight Who are your friends Who are your friends

Oh yeah Hey, by the way, who’s your children’s friends in the neighborhood I had a preacher friend And he moved into a neighborhood And family moved across the street Little 13-year-old girl And she came over Pastor, can your children come over and play

He said, honey, we’re going to be tied up today We’re going to be busy He thought that would be the end of it, but it wasn’t She was a persistent little female, even at 13 And she kept coming every day Now, can they come today You said they couldn’t come yesterday And he kept putting her off and putting her off And finally, he said, Honey, look, my children won’t be coming over to play

There’s two or three reasons Number one, you play rotten rock rap music over there We do not agree with the beat, the method, or the message of rock music

Number two, you don’t wear enough clothes And that’s the second reason they won’t be coming over Well, she went home and told her mama that

And boy, that went over like screen doors on a submarine You know, that really created wonderful spirit in the community But I like what this preacher said

He said, I’d like to win all of my neighbors to God, but I’ll let the whole community go to hell before I’ll sell my children down the road of impurity over it And he’s right He’s right

There’s certain things come before other things Who are your children’s friends Who are your children’s friends

I’m telling you something, fellas You can set that little fellow on the car seat beside of you and you can say, son, there’s things you play with and things you don’t And one of the things you don’t play with is an automobile

If you want to race, get on a golf cart Get on a dirt bike and shoot up the banks But don’t get out here on the highway with a car

Number one, it’s illegal It’s sinful And number three, it’s dangerous

You’ll hurt yourself Yes, sir, Dad Yes, sir

Best attitude in this world But the first time he’s caught out with certain deacon’s children here, and I don’t know any, so I’m not picking on you The first time he’s caught out out here at some so-called church activity, And they’re going down the stretch out here on highway whatever it is

And the boy in the back seat said, hey, Frank, put the pedal to the metal Let’s go down the road one time What was that

Dropped the hammer Man, you got a clean machine You mean speed

Do we mean speed What did you think we meant Man, oh, my dad

Oh, we got a daddy’s boy I bet he knits and crochets with mama too Man, you act like we’re daddy haters or something

We love our dads too Even the manual says you ought to blow the carburetor out now and then What’s wrong with you, man

You stack about 20 minutes worth of that up against 16 years of a godly influence of a father and everything that father’s done will fall in a pile It’s the power of about 20 minutes with the wrong kind of a friend Who are your friends

Who are your friends It’s worse than you think it is For some of you parents it’s worse than you think it is I’m thinking now Brother Seton preached in our church several revivals He was telling me,

he said I was in a church And he said the first night I was in that church Never preached a meeting there before He said halfway through my sermon A handsome looking 25 year old fellow Sitting very intently watching on the back pew And said all of a sudden in the middle of my sermon He just sat down,

pulled both knees up under his chin Looked up He said I knew he wasn’t a whole biscuit I knew he was out of it He said he sat back down Looked at me in a little bit He jerked his knees up under his chin Clapped his hand looked straight up With a strange look on his face He said I knew he was gone He said he did that three or four times During my sermon He said at the end of the

sermon Pastor walked up and said Preacher did you see the kid on the back row He said see Man, that boy’s got problems, don’t he He said, yeah, he does He said, Pastor, who is the kid Pastor said, he’s my son He said, your son

He said, he’s my son He said, let me tell you about him, preacher There’s never been a better boy ever grew up in this church than that boy He was quiet,

went to our Christian school Never gave us a second’s trouble Best attitude He wasn’t a loud boy He wasn’t cocky He wasn’t a hot dog He was obedient He did it But when he got up some age in his teen years He got a friend And we began to warn him Son, that boy is not He said, Dad, I know it I know it I know he’s not But I’m going to help him No,

you’re not going to help him The strong never draws up the weak The weak always pulls down the strong It just so happened that that friend had another friend You know, before you yoke up with somebody I’m not just preaching to teenagers preaching to everybody, before you yoke up with somebody and join hands with them, you better look and see who they’re joining hands with It’s kind of like a wire

You may touch a wire that’s innocent, but if it’s connected to 220 on the other end, it’s going to come as a shock to you Did you know that And so it is

If you yoke up with somebody, you better watch and see who they’re yoked up with That second or third one down the line is going to feed stuff up to you, through them to you And he said, Brother Seton, he was out one night with those boys, and they convinced him

They were having just a fun, cut-up time And they convinced him that everybody ought to try LSD just one time And he did

One time It left him that way The doctors say he has the brain of a three-year-old, and he’ll be that way the rest of his life

Because he had a friend Because he had a friend Because he had a friend

Because he had a friend You are right now or you soon shall be what your friends are Who are your friends

Somebody asked me not long ago I said, Brother Brown, you’ve been preaching 32 years Heard you 40 years ago

I’ve been preaching in churches I preached in before I got married the first time I’m preaching in churches

I preached in a church not long ago over here near Summleville I helped a revival in 50 years ago 50 years ago

And there’s people in that church remembered me and remembered me preaching that And people ask me, they say, how did you stay the same You’re the same

You’re preaching the same way, the same style, the same messages I’ll tell you how I did that I dialed the kind of preacher I wanted to be by the kind of preachers I listen to, the kind of preachers I run with, the kind of meetings I go to, the kind of preaching services I attend

There’s some preachers I don’t hang around There’s some fundamental preachers I don’t hang around They’ve got an ugly spirit and an ugly attitude

I don’t want to be around them I don’t want to catch that I want to be a fundamentalist, a blood and fire fundamentalist, but I don’t want to be an ugly fundamentalist

I want to be somebody with a tear in the eye I want to preach on hell, but I want to do it like it really matters to me if people go to hell, and it does matter Oh, yeah

So I’m saying, but who are your friends Who are your friends A preacher, I didn’t know this preacher, but a preacher had a teenage girl, and she started taking up with two girls in the church

That wasn’t what they were supposed to be He warned her about it He and his wife both said, Honey, these girls are not who you should be sitting with

She said, Dad, I know that But they’re not all that bad See, that already affected her attitude

Comes quick They said, Well, honey, we know them We know them

They’re a pastor I know what’s going on And you don’t need to be sitting with them

She defied her parents Finally, they told her, Honey, if you caught with her again, If we have to go to jail, we’re going to stop this You’re not set

Well, about three nights later, she disappeared with the girls Actually, with one of them And several nights later, they hadn’t found either one of them

They were underage teenagers Mom and dad frantic, not knowing if the girl was alive or dead or what was going on Maybe somebody abducted them

Who in the world knows what happened And the pastor laying on his pillow, his wife watering her pillow with her tears, rolling her head from side to side, saying, Honey, how can we live not knowing if our daughter’s dead or alive And the telephone rang

And a sheriff from a police department out west said, Is this Reverend So he said, Yes, yes Do you have a daughter by the name of him called her name

Yes, yes Is she alive Oh, she’s alive

She’s alive She had taken a little drugs

We picked her up She was hysterical She was crazy hysterical And we didn’t know what to do with her So we put her in the drunk tank Drunk tank was a padded cell You put drunks keeping from hurting herself Until they can sober up Said there was nobody in it So we put her in the drunk tank She was so hysterical And Preacher we’ve done some reference on her And found out that you folks have a pretty nice family out there

And if you’ll come and get her She really hadn’t done anything We got to book her for her And so if you’ll come and get her We’ll release her to you And this preacher said, drove most of the night And early the next morning, on into the night and early the next morning, as they walked in the jail, the attending officer said, come back and I’ll show her to you

We’ll release her Come back, I’ll show you where she is So they walked down that hall, their heels clicking on that old concrete floor, and they echo up and down the halls of those steel bars and those big metal keys dangling, echoing in those iron doors

and then threw a door in another and another, and finally they came to this sale The girl didn’t see them coming She was a tiny little thing, weighed less than 100 pounds

She was barefooted She’d crawled This drunk tank was a cage-like thing, much like a chain-link fence cage, and it came up and actually turned over and literally made it like a birdcage effect for the fear that these people would hurt themselves or try to climb out

And this girl had climbed up the side of that cage, She’d climbed up so high that she had turned back at an angle like this was hanging at an angle She had her fingers locked through the mash of the cage Her feet, her little toes were stuck through the steel bars

And here’s what she was saying and how she was saying it Oh, God Oh, God

Oh, God It’s worse than I thought it was It’s worse than I thought it was

It’s worse than I.. And it’s worse than you think it is right now It’s worse than you think it is right now, mama

It’s worse than you think it is right now, daddy Now, I’m telling you, somebody needs to get in the driver’s seat Somebody needs to tend to their children

Somebody better get to praying And some young person needs to wake up and realize you ain’t playing cute little games This thing is worse than you think it is

Who are your friends Who are your friends Who’s your boyfriend, young lady

You say, that’s personal I get personal when I preach, thank you Who’s your boyfriend

Who’s your boyfriend Is he that dude that comes in with his shirt unbuttoned down to his navel Like that’s going to excite somebody Three hairs sticking out right here They’re really not his hair He’s super glued them there off his German Shepherd dog You know what I mean really

Pants are baggy You could drop a Mack truck in the seat of him Got enough chains wrapped around him to tie up a herd of bull elephants Is that your boyfriend Yeah, but, Pastor, I know he’s got some problems, but I’m going to help him No, honey, you’re not going to help him

He’s going to help himself I tell you what he’s going to do He’s going to leave you sitting high and dry with a little baby to raise by yourself

That’s exactly what he’s going to do While he’s out chasing around some miniskirt wearing hip-hugging hussy with so much green eyeshadow, it looks like her gallbladders busted That’s what he’s going to do

Brother Brown’s helping you this evening, whether you know it or not That’s what he’s going to do And while he’s in the bathroom laughing about you and telling what a slut you are, how easy you are, that’s what he’s going to do

Oh, no, it’s going to be different with me And have we ever heard that song before Have we ever heard that song

Who’s your boyfriend Who’s your girlfriend Hey, young man, who’s your girlfriend

Is she the one that goes down here to swim and pulling strips off but not enough clothes on to clean out the barrel of a 10-gauge shotgun Parading around naked so boys and men can look and lust after her body Well, Pastor Brown, that doesn’t bother me

Well, if that don’t bother you, don’t you shake my hand, you slimy devil I’m 70 years old I’ve lived pure all my life, but I can’t look at that

And you can’t look at that And if you say you can, you’re as queer as a $9 bill Amen

It’s not like you’re preaching I don’t like your looks I’ve been preaching this way 52 years

I can’t quit tonight just because you look like you’re soaking a prune for tomorrow’s lunch Hey, man, who’s your girlfriend Who’s your girlfriend

Who are your friends in the books you read Who are your friends in the books you read I had a deacon’s family one time, and the girl got rebellious

She went to the Christian school She went to the Christian school, but she got rebellious They couldn’t figure it out

Her mother found the answer one day while she was cleaning her room down in her underwear drawer underwear, they found a book about that thick with a picture of a girl standing on the front in a long white dress and blood running down the dress Witchcraft

But it doesn’t have to get that bad There’s a lot of this so-called Christian junk put out nowadays, just as sensual as it can be Who are your friends

Who are your friends in the books you read Who are the friends in the music you listen to Frank Garlock was right when he said the music you listen to affects your philosophy your life even if the music doesn’t have any words to it

You say, preacher, we hear junkie music everywhere we go I do and you do and we cannot avoid it But there’s a whole lot of difference between what you cannot avoid and what you can’t avoid

There’s a whole lot of difference between that which you happen to hear out of the car is sitting beside of you with the windows down and the bass music jarring the car and jarring your car There’s a whole lot of difference between that and what you put in your room and what you put in your life Who are your friends

Who are your friends on the cell phone Who are your friends on chat room, email, Facebook Who are your friends

Who are your friends on the television, smell-o-vision, hell-o-vision Who are your friends Psalms 101 verse 1 through 4, I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes

I hate the work of them that turn aside A forward heart shall depart from me I shall not know a wicked person

He that worketh deceit shall not dwell in my house He that telleth lies shall not carry in my sight Is that what you practice

Who are your friends on the television I don’t know if you’re asleep with your eyes open, you disagree with me, or whether you, I don’t know what you’re doing I can’t tell

I’ve never seen preach such a quiet crowd in a fundamental church Anybody out there agree with anything I say Amen

Well, thank you It’s nice to know you got a friend But anyway, anyway, who are your friends

Who are your friends Well, I’m going to tell you about my friend But first, I want to tell you this

Two boys, true story, two boys pulled up in the driveway one night to pick up a girl, and he showed what she was, didn’t he And when they pulled up in the driveway, her daddy came out instead of her And he came walking out

It was summertime, hot The window was down on the car, and he leaned into the car like this, and said, now boys, I know why you’re here, but you can go ahead and leave because she’s not going with you tonight or tomorrow night or next week or next month or next year So you just go ahead and leave

They glared at him, started the car, backed out the driveway And as I said a while ago, they put the pedal to the metal, scratched out and threw rocks all up in his yard, and went down the forks of the road and turned around and came back and cursed him, rolled the window down Hey, you old blankety-blank, called him every filthy four-letter word in the book, went down, turned around again

They made about three passes at his house They didn’t see him, yelling, screaming at him, mad Oh, boiling mad

Their plans for the night got interrupted And they went downtown Mad, bored, angry, cruising the fours

And as they cruised along downtown, yelling at all the teenagers, goofing off, there was a boy walking along the sidewalk A good boy Boy didn’t cuss

Boy wouldn’t have been caught dead with a girl like that But a boy that didn’t know how to pick his friends He’s just walking along

They pulled over to the curb and said, hey, Joe, let’s take a ride He said, where are we going He said, well, we don’t know

We thought we knew, and our plans got changed Get in The boy on the passenger side got out, and Joe got in the middle

Now, I don’t know that that was his name I’m just using that He got in the middle

They went down the road The fellow doing the driving decided he’d make one more pass at the old man’s house house

And when they slowed down and rolled the window down that time and yelled, hey, you old blankety blank, blank See, they didn’t know that the last time they did that, they’d pushed him over the brink They didn’t know he was standing behind an evergreen bush in the front yard with a 30-06

And when they put the pedal to the metal that time and scratched out He stepped out Pow

Guess who died Yeah You guessed it

They said it made a little old hole about the size of the end of your thumb where it went in and blew out a whole section of his heart And he dropped down the floorboard, quivering He was dead when he hit the floorboard

His eyes rolled back in his head, blood spurting out and filling up the floorboard

And out yonder, Somewhere In a cold lonely grave tonight Lies a boy I don’t know what they put on his tombstone But if they had put the truth Here’s what they would put Here lies Joe He was a good boy He would be alive But he had a friend But he had a friend But he had a friend But he had a friend But he had a friend Who are your friends tonight Who are your friends tonight You listen to this letter

Greetings to you from Hagerstown, Maryland I want to thank you for your faithfulness in preaching the Bible I want you to know you made a difference in my life

After graduation from high school, I enrolled in and called the name of the Bible college Actually, I’ll tell you what it was It was Pensacola Christian College to study the Bible and missionary training

Only a couple of months before leaving, I met this guy He said he loved the Lord and was a soul winner I was very impressed with him, and we began a friendship that quickly grew

We became fond of each other, went on group outings together I thought he was such a wonderful guy, but my parents, on the other hand, were suspicious and discouraged our friendship I’m reading you the actual letter she mailed me

Up to this point in my life, I’d always obeyed and respected and loved my parents Now I resented them and longed to be with my friend I began to rebel

My relationship with Jesus suddenly became distant My friend disliked my parents and their rules He tried to convince me that my parents were wrong for raising me so strict and that I should do what I wanted to do in life

I thought I loved him and that he loved me I thought my mother and father were judgmental and unfeeling My mother was hoping I’d forget about him and eagerly prepared me to go to Bible college

In the fall, I left for Bible college to go into missionary service, train for missionary service I hoped my friend would decide to be a missionary too During opening revival meetings at the Bible College, you were one of the guest speakers

You preached from 2 Samuel 13 and 14 Your message was entitled, Amnon had a friend It seemed like you knew all about my life

I never in my life up to that point heard that type of preaching The precious Holy Spirit began to work in my life I faulted at first because I thought I loved my friend from back home so much

Finally, tears began to flow from my cheeks I knelt down at the altar and asked God to forgive me I knew that if I were to continue my friendship with this boy, it would end up like Amnon did in the Bible, dead

Jesus forgave my rebellious heart I went straight to my dorm room, called my mom and dad as you had suggested, and asked them to forgive me I called my friend and told him it was over between he and me forever

My parents were thrilled and my relationship with them and Jesus has been sweeter ever since that day Years have passed by and I’ll still never forget that sermon you preached I vowed to God I’d never marry anyone unless my parents’ blessings was upon it and that I would save my first kiss for that wedding day

Now I’m engaged to the most godly man in all this world My parents are so happy My future husband and I are going to serve Jesus as missionaries on the foreign field

If it had not been for the preaching of the Word of God back in those days, my life would have been in shambles I want to thank you for preaching the Word of God Keep preaching it

It changes lives I know It changed mine

My mother would rather you not use my name And so I wouldn’t call her name I was preaching this same sermon in Crown College A couple of years ago And a girl came up to me And said the other night A couple of nights after that She said the other night when you preached this sermon Said I broke and made a decision About my relationship to a young man Who are your friends tonight Who are your friends Who are your friends

I have a Oh but you don’t have to worry about me I go to the Christian school here Well, Rudy, toot, toot I am so impressed Now, let me tell you something

There’s never been a man stood in this pulpit anymore for Christian education than I We never sent any of our children to the state to educate But having said that, there’s young people in this Christian school that will lead you toward God and young people in this Christian school that will lead you away from God and you are responsible to God to know which ones are which and to make wise choices

You say, who told you Nobody It’s always that way

Always that way Who are your friends Who are your friends

Moms and dads, who are your friends Who are your friends Let me tell you about my friend and then we’re going to go to the house

Get a big old bowl of cornflakes Crush it down, cut up a whole banana and put on it Eat the whole thing

fill it up again, crush it down again, cut up another banana, eat the whole thing Do that three times, go to bed, and see the beast of Revelation 13 before 4 o’clock in the morning Let me tell you about my friend now

They pulled a bag down over his head, and they beat him and beat him and beat him until the Bible says his visage was so marked he didn’t even look like a human being In my mind, I can see his head as they pull the bag off his head His eyes are beat nearly out of their sockets

His teeth are all beat out clots of blood are sliding down his throat, and when he catches his breath gurgling on his own blood, he looks at me, and through eyes of faith, he said, Larry, I’m doing this because I want to be your friend

I watched him as he went into Pilate’s judgment hall, and when they bent him over and took that cat of nine tails and came down across his back 39 times, 39 times, nine strands of leather with bits of bone and glass in each strand, and it wouldn’t hit and come off and hit and come off, but it would hit and hang, and they’d jerk it in it, hit and hang, and then jerk it

Unger’s Bible Dictionary said it wasn’t uncommon for a man’s intestines to be laying on the ground after the Roman scourge And every time they would hit him, he’d catch his breath and he’d look at me, the strands of meat hanging from both sides And he said, Larry, I’m doing this because I want to be your friend

I followed him a bloody mile up Calvary’s hill I watched him when they laid the old rugged cross on his back I saw the naked bones and the nerves dancing when they laid the splintered cross on him

And I saw him when he fell beneath the cross I followed him a bloody mile up Calvary’s hill and watched him as he stretched his sinless hand out and he placed a spike in his hand and drove it through A big ugly Roman soldier with a big spike

And he grimaced and looked at me and said, Larry, I’m doing this because I want to be your friend And then the other hand and now his feet And then raised the cross up and dropped it in the hole

And the Bible says that every bone in his body was out of joint And he caught his breath and he said, Larry, I’m doing this because I want to be your friend And I watched him as he drug his back up and down to the old rugged cross

Most people, the actual cause of death on the cross was usually suffocation because you couldn’t breathe You were hanging, you couldn’t breathe, so you’d pull up to catch your breath But you couldn’t hold it because you were too weak and you’d drop

And I heard leaders and tenders and muscles and joints busting and breaking every time he dropped And I heard him say, Larry, I’m doing this because I want to be your friend And I watched him until every drop of his sinless blood was poured out

And I saw it get dark, real dark, when it wasn’t supposed to get dark And out of the darkness, I heard, Eli, Eli, let me say back tonight, which is to say, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me And I could still hear the echo of that holy, deified voice saying, Larry, I’m doing this because I want to be your friend

And I was a rock and roll singer in amateur show business in those days And I said, live, die, sink, swim Get fat or die skinny

I’ll live for Jesus day after day I’ll live for Jesus Let come what may

The Holy Spirit I will obey And I cut the rope, sold out, locked, stock, barreled for Jesus at 18 years old That was 52 years ago

I’ve never looked back I’ve never seen anything to go back for I’ve never seen anything worth living for

But Jesus and I wouldn’t take nothing for my journey now, brother I’m telling you, I’m heaven bound with a hammer down It’s a glorious life

I’m in deep cotton and high clover And I want to tell you something, friend You know, it wouldn’t have mattered

Young people, let me just throw this in I’m going to quit preaching here It wouldn’t have mattered what I’d have gotten into at 18 years of age

If I’d have had the talent of Michael Jordan, I’d have been like Michael Not much left except managing something Muhammad Ali was standing in O’Hare Field

And Lonnie Mattingly, Lonnie Mattingly recognized him Lonnie told me this story Said, I walked up to him

I recognized him Muhammad Ali said, hey, champ, would you sign my Bible Here’s what he said

I wish I could George Foreman laid too many sledgehammer blows to his head I wish I could

They didn’t tell it, but when he lit that Olympic torch, he burned himself They didn’t tell that It wouldn’t have mattered what I got into, young people

It wouldn’t have mattered what I’d have given my life for I’d have been in history long ago I wouldn’t have been standing here feeling like an 18-year-old at age 70, so excited I could run up and down every aisle in this church, shout all over this church

I wouldn’t have been this excited I wouldn’t be living this life It wouldn’t be this abundant after 52 years if I’d have done anything in the world except give my life to Jesus

And he’s calling you tonight And some of you have some decisions to make There’s moms and dads that have decisions to make

Some grandparents have decisions to make Let’s give it to God tonight And there’s somebody here without the Lord

I want to tell you something He’s a friend worth having Let’s bow our heads in prayer.