Let's open our Bibles to the book of Genesis Genesis Chapter 2 Genesis Chapter 2 It's the very last book in the Bible Genesis chapter 2, begin reading with verse 15. Genesis 2, 15. And the Lord God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat. But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat of it, for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. Thank you. And the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone. I will make him and help meet for him. And out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every fowl of the air and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them. And whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof. And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found an helpmate for him. And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept. And he took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh and stood thereof. And the rib which the Lord God had taken from man, made he a woman and brought her under the man. And Adam said, this is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman because she was taken out of man. Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother and shall cleave unto his wife. They shall be one flesh. And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed. Most of the time, I tend to be a people person. Most of the time, I enjoy being around people, at least some people anyway. I know and I understand that not everybody is an extrovert. I know that some people really aren't just naturally outgoing and talkative. For some people, meeting new people and having to talk to them can be a cause of tremendous stress. But there are some things that the Bible gives us that apply to everybody, whether you're an introvert or an extrovert. There are some things in the Bible that apply to every one of us, and those are some things I want to look at this evening. I read in our text here about the very first couple that ever existed. Notice, up to this point, God has made the heavens and the earth, And God has made everything and God saw that it was good. Everything God made up to this point has been good. It's been perfect. It's been ideal. It's been the very, very best that God himself could create. Until he came to Adam. And the only thing God said is that it is not good. for man to dwell alone. Now notice, Adam had a perfect nature and a perfect personality. He had a perfect mind and a perfect body. He lived in a perfect environment. Everything about it was absolutely perfect. But it wasn't good for him to be alone. Adam had thousands of animals to keep him company, but that wasn't the same. Now, I thought about this and I do want to put this little disclaimer in here. It's not my purpose to go into all of the therapeutic studies that have been done to show how animals can help in healing and how animals can help in depression and those things. That's not my purpose. But God said after all of the animals and all the animals were perfect, even with all of the animals and after he had named all of the animals and done all of those things, God said there is no one, there is nothing on the face of the whole earth that is like Adam, that he can have a companion with or a help meet. There's no one that Adam could communicate on an equal scale. There was no one that Adam could enjoy the beauty of creation with anywhere. Well, we read that God said, let us make man in our, well, we didn't read it, but in chapter one, God said, let us make man in our image after our likeness and let them, plural, let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the fowl of the air and over the cattle and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So when God created Adam and Eve, he gave them dominion over all the earth. It wasn't until sin entered that the woman became in a different role of submission. Not inferior, but a different role. So in verse 27, Genesis 1, God created man in his own image. In the image of God created he him. male and female created he them. So in the very beginning, people say, well, women weren't created in the image of God. Yes, they were just as much as Adam was. God used a different method for making Adam than he did Eve. But God said, let us make man in our image. Male and female created he them. both of them in the image of God. Adam and Eve were made to be social people. She's called a helpmate, even in a perfect world. That ought to destroy the idea of being slaves, shouldn't it? In a perfect world, she was there to be a helpmate, a companion, a social equal to Adam, not only the act of marriage, just a companion, a helpmate. It's a proven fact, and I didn't copy all of the studies to back it up. They're out there. If you want to find them, they're very readily available. But it is a fact that married people generally tend to live longer and to be more prosperous than people who don't marry. There's something about marriage that extends your life and enables you to accomplish more than you ever could by yourself. Throughout history, it's always been God's plan that people mix and mingle with other people. There's always been times when God has made sure, and we're going to look at some of those, that when His work was being done, it wasn't one person. I know there have always been a few people who choose isolation. The other night I went down to Richmond to hear Brother Asbury, and I told him, I said, I think I'm about ready to move to the hollers of Tennessee away from everybody, away from phones, away from TV, away from the internet, away from everything and everybody and become an absolute hermit. There are days I feel like that. But then in his infinite wisdom, he said, you wouldn't last a week without somebody to talk to. There are people We used to have a man that lived right on the farm next to my grandfather. His name was Roe Russell. If you really want some interesting stories, I could tell you all kinds of things about Roe Russell, but he truly was a hermit in every sense of the word. And sometimes we all want to just be alone. But that isn't normal. That's not the way God created us. That's not the way that God intended us to live. And so in Genesis, we see God bringing the first husband and wife together as the first example of companionship. Now, and in preparing this, there were so many directions to go to. A husband and wife should not only be husband and wife, They should be best friends. Well, I married her. That's why I encourage people, become friends before you get married. A husband and wife were brought together for the purpose of companionship. Oh, I know in our society, we want the act of marriage first and last. We want the act of marriage and, you know, we rush off and get married for the act of marriage. But after a while, you settle down into the reality that there's more to life than one act of marriage. So God made Adam and Eve to be companions, to be together. Yes, he brought them in marriage together, but it was more than just one particular thing. She was created to be a soulmate, to be a companion, Later on, we see that God gave rules and regulations for society, not only the home, but now we branch out into society. Anytime you have people together, there's going to be different personalities and different preferences. And so God said, okay, to the nation of Israel, I'm calling you out as a nation. And there's two and a half million people that are all going to be different. And so in order to get along, God gave rules and regulation. You need that in a functional society. Everybody Everybody, best friends, husbands and wives, parents and children, neighbors, coworkers, if we're gonna get along in society, we must have rules. And so God laid down some fundamental rules to serve as guides as we live in this society together. The rules were going to direct behavior. when we have to deal with other people, because God understands, I created you to be a family. I created you to be a society. And here are the rules to get along in this society. Later on, God set up the nation of Israel, not only as a nation, but as individual families. And if you read there in the first five chapters of the Bible, you'll find out God gave families instructions to maintain peace and harmony. And we find these expanded in the New Testament. Let not the sun go down upon your raft. I mean, well, don't raise your hand. How many of you ever gone to bed mad? to get a good night's sleep. If you do, you're better than most people I know. You have a real yell, scream, holler, fight. And unless you're very, very unusual, You go to bed, you can't sleep. The more you think about it, whether it was your wife or a worker or a neighbor, you lay there, you go over it in your mind, you go over it in your mind. And every time you go over it, you get madder and madder. God said, don't let the sun go down. deal with it in society, in this thing of being with other people for your sake as well as theirs, deal with it because otherwise you're going to disrupt the whole system of families and nations. We find instructions for parents in children. We find instructions for children with parents. We find instructions on discipline. Because you see, in this life that God has given us, this family unit, we're all depraved sinners now. And if we don't have rules of society, rules of family, We're going to have utter chaos. He gave instructions on how to raise godly children. He gave instructions of how to care for each other, even as far as the next of kin. You know, I just had a thought. Wouldn't we be a whole lot better off if society went back to where families took care of families instead of government taking care of everybody. God gave instructions how to help your neighbor, how to help your family, how to care for those who are poor. And if you're fortunate enough to be rich, how to care for those who are not as blessed. Then we come to the New Testament. We see God's instituting his church. His church was instituted to function as his body and his representative here on earth. But even in the church environment, we're told to assemble regularly. Somebody said, why do you insist on going to church all the time? Well, it's commanded, for one thing, But it's also to encourage one another, to help one another, to help those who are struggling to do what they need to do. And it's to provoke one another to love and to good work. You see, we don't just come to church every week to sit and listen to a sermon. We come to church because We need each other. One of the big things I see, and it's frightening from a pastor's perspective, is I see people come to church, sit in church, get up, leave, and never see each other or have any idea what anybody else is doing during the week. That's not what God gave the church for. You look in the book of Acts. They were meeting daily. They met daily and they went from house to house. Why? Certainly they were being taught under the apostles, but it was more than that. They were praying together. They were encouraging each other. When Peter and John were arrested and threatened, if you preach anymore, we're going to beat you. And they went back to the church and they rejoiced together. You see, if you try to do that on your own, you're gonna get awfully weak and awfully tired. In the New Testament, right in the very beginning, we see Jesus calling out his church and living with the apostles for three years. Do you think during that three year time, the apostles ever disagreed about anything? Oh yeah, the Bible gives us several things. But they lived with each other. They traveled with each other. They knew each other. When Jesus sent them out to preach, he sent them out in pairs of two. Why? When the early church sent out missionaries, they didn't just say, okay, Paul, you go there. Barnabas, you go there. They send the missionaries out in twos, at least twos, sometimes more. In the book of Acts, we find Paul staying with Aquila and Priscilla rather than dwelling alone. And throughout most of the book, you almost always see Paul in the company of other Christians. The one exception is chapter 20. The one exception was in chapter 20 when Paul took a journey on foot by himself and met up with the others on board the ship later. He made a journey by himself because he was praying and trying to get some things settled in his own mind that he knew was probably going to be coming up. One of the things that Paul lamented in Timothy, was that when he stood before Caesar the first time, nobody stood with them. Because he was all alone, he said, God stood with me, but nobody stood with me. Why did that stand out? Why did he include that in scriptures? Nobody stood with me. We do find the Apostle Paul alone on the Isle of Patmos, but he was put out there because he was being punished. And part of the punishment was solitude. Stick him on an island out there away from everybody, and we can punish him by sticking him out there on the island. So what's the benefits of companionship? I'm going to use some scriptures here and I'm going to say some things that I want you to listen very, very carefully to some of the, well I want you to listen to everything, but some things I will especially emphasize. Ecclesiastes chapter 4. If you want to turn, I'll give you just a minute there. Ecclesiastes chapter 4. Ecclesiastes chapter 4. Ecclesiastes 4 verse 9, two are better than one because they have a good reward for their labor. For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow, but woe to him that is alone when he falleth, for he hath not another to help him up. Again, if two lie together, then they have How can one be warm alone? And if one prevail against him, two shall withstand him, and a threefold cord is not quickly broken. Solomon, wisest man that ever lived, understood, yes, you can go it alone sometime, but when you do, understand that you are alone. If you fall, there's nobody there to help you. I'm going to even go a little farther. Brother Carl Morton preached last night over at the fellowship meeting, and I had heard it before, but he gave his testimony of how that he was pastor in Alexandria, and he had a complete, total nervous breakdown. He went into a deep, deep, dark state of depression. If you're all alone, there's nobody to help you out. There's nobody to encourage you. If you fall and you're alone, you're there. You fall. If somebody attacks you, Two people have a better chance of withstanding them than one. And a three-fold cord is even better because it's harder to break. What's Solomon trying to sum up in all of this? It's possible for one person to be overworked and discouraged and be overcome by the load that they're carrying on their shoulders. But just having someone else around to help can lessen the load and provide encouragement. Did you get that? I get asked frequently, how big is your church? And I tell them what we average. Where do you go? Oh, I go, don't name one of two or three churches in the area. Those churches run anywhere from 2,000 to 5,000 per service. And I said, do you even know who you're sitting beside? Well, no. No, I don't even know who's sitting next to me. I prefer to be someplace so that if I'm down, somebody can come along and help lighten the load and encourage me. This thing of companionship is more than just sticking around somebody. You can have a dog that can follow you around, and I'm sure you can get some comfort and things, but when you're struggling beneath a load and a burden, dog can't come up beside you and say, hey, let me help carry that load. Proverbs 27, again, Solomon said in verse 17, iron sharpeneth iron. So a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend. Verse 19, as in water, face entereth to face, so the heart of man to man. Iron sharpeneth iron. The only way you can make an ax sharper is to sharpen it with something just as strong as it is. So a man sharpeneth the counsel of his friend. Sometimes in this companionship relationship, it's necessary to go against the grain. Sometimes you may have to stand and put iron against iron. You see someone going astray. You see someone who is doing something they shouldn't. Being a faithful companion, you sharpen the countenance of your friends, just like iron sharpens iron. In verse 19, as in water face answereth the face. Have you ever looked in a nice cool pool of water and you get a perfect reflection? So is the heart of man to man. Sometimes it takes a loving friend to sharpen us and challenge us and sometimes rebuke us. to move on. And sometimes it takes someone with a heart like ours to see us, to empathize with us. Because just as water face answereth the face, so the heart of man can answer another man. We call it empathize because I know exactly how you feel. And someone that's been there, someone that has lost a spouse, someone that has lost a child, someone that has been through a divorce, someone that has been through a tragedy, they can answer another person Their heart can speak to that heart because they are on the same wavelength. See, you can't get that anywhere else. But then I come to the New Testament, and I already quoted this verse a little bit, Hebrews 10, 25, not forsaking the assembling of yourselves together. Why did God command us to assemble ourselves together? It's not just a great idea. It's not just an idea. Well, you know, if you get up Sunday and you're tired, go back to bed. If you get up and you're not tired, come on down to the church. We'd love to see you. No, he gave the commandment not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is. There's some people that are not going to come. I don't care what you do. I've said about some of our members, they wouldn't come if Jesus Christ himself was going to preach the day or the night. Some people are not going to assemble. But that's no excuse for us. We assemble and we exhort one another. See, and this disturbs me tremendously. We come to church, we sit through the preaching, we get up, we go home, and sometimes we haven't hardly even spoken to anyone else. And if we do, it's a very casual, hi, how are you today? And I can tell you from My observation, we've got people hurting. We've got people that are going through trials. And unless we assemble, unless we go beyond just sitting on a pew and we become true companions and truly get to know each other so that our heart can talk to their heart because we're one in the same. We're going to come and leave just as depressed as we were when we came. We have people that are struggling, marriages that are struggling, homes that are struggling, and yet we can't wait to get out of church because Let's see, I got the oven scheduled. The oven comes on at 11. The oven goes off at 12.15. I got to be there by 12.30 to get it out of the oven, or it's going to burn. No, we assemble so that we can exhort one another, encourage one another. And so much the more, as you see the day approaching, You know, we live in tough times. We live in trying times. We live in times when Satan seems to be going all out to attack God's people. And unless we, as God's children, as members of the church, as members of the family, unless we encourage each other, the world is not going to. I know not everybody's an extrovert. Some people are just natural born listeners. Do you know what I have found out with a lot of people? If you get them away from the crowd, Get them away from the church, and you reach out to them with your heart. What was it? So the heart of man answereth to man. You get away this. Come to church so we can get out. I've done my duty. Let's go home. You get people out and you speak to them on a heart-to-heart level. And there's people that you don't think can talk, but they'll open up and talk if you talk to them from your heart. We exhort one another. We encourage one another. See, we're not just members of the same church. We're part of the same body. Sometimes parts of my body need more help than other parts of my body do. And so we come together, we assemble, we exhort. And just like in water face talks to face, we talk to people on a heart level. Now that takes time. You don't get to know people by just when we're shaking hands while we sing. You don't get to know people by just going around shaking hands. You don't get to know them. You could go to the mall and shake hands and probably learn people just as much. But you get to know each other when you spend time with each other, when you listen to each other, When you talk to each other, I asked my wife the other night, and I'm keep it very general here, said, how was the trip? How was the ladies retreat really? She said, it was great. The ladies getting away from everything else and just seeing each other as humans, At church, I don't know if you're human or not, but we get to know each other. We get to understand each other. We begin to understand, you know what? They're not such a bad person after all. And then we can speak heart to heart with each other. And then we can encourage each other. Ephesians chapter 4, Paul wrote, and he gave some apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ. See, I believe that if God added you to this church, He gave you something that you can do to edify the body of Christ. It may simply be listening to someone who needs to talk. It may be going to someone and saying, you know, I had the exact experience. Now, let me throw this out. I learned this years ago. Someone loses a husband, don't go and say, I know just how you feel. No, you don't. But if you're here and say, Lord, use me to edify the body. I find that sometimes we just need to listen to each other. Talk to each other. Get to know each other. And then you'll better understand how to encourage me, and I'll better understand how to encourage you. God said it's not good for man to be alone. And I have to believe that God knows what He was talking about. And with few exceptions, it's still not good to be alone. Well, I'm not married. Okay. Find a good Christian friend that you can fellowship with and bond with and encourage each other. James said in James 5, confess your faults one to another and pray one for another that you may be healed. I can't imagine not having anybody to rejoice with or to cry to. I can't imagine not having anybody that when I just feel That I am at my rope's end, there is not one single person that I can think of that I can go to and talk to. I can't imagine living like that. I can't share my feelings. I can't cry. And I can't go to and say, I just feel like John. See, God's given me a number of people. But as a body of Christ, we all, we all need to, well, I don't, I can't talk to them. Why, if they knew what the struggle I was going through, listen, there hath no temptation taken you, but such as is common to man. I don't care what you're struggling with. There have been thousands of people before you who have gone through the same struggle, and if you'll just let them, they can be a help. Now, the exception to this, and we see it in Jesus often, Jesus got alone often to pray. Even when he taught his disciples how to pray, he said, enter ye into the closet so that you're not distracted or so that you're not tempted to put on a show. But if the very first man in the perfect environment, with a perfect mind, perfect body, perfect environment, perfect everything, If it wasn't good for Adam to be alone, folks, you and I need each other. So much the more as you see the day approaching. Father, we come. And Lord, I know that all of us are so busy. We don't have time to form friendships. We don't have time to listen to other people who just need a shoulder to cry on. We don't have time to bond with other people. And sadly sometimes we don't even want to because we don't care what they're going through as long as it doesn't affect me. Help us to realize that you put us together for a purpose. First of all, our purpose is to exalt you, but also our purpose sometimes is to just be that helpmate for someone in the valley. We can walk beside them, hold their hand, Lord, I thank you that we have far more unity than most churches that I know of, but I think that we can become much closer together if we just stop, take our time, and realize that we're not separate individuals, but we're part of one body, and we're to work and encourage one another I do pray for those that are lost. May tonight be the night that you save them by your grace. In Jesus' name, amen.