This is a Salaback Church podcast.

We're in the middle of a message series. It's called the Lost Art of Friendship. And this

has been a great series so far. We've been looking at the idea that God formed. He shaped us for

communities. So inherent in our design as humans is this longing, this desire for relationship

with one another. We're hardwired with it. In fact, God said when he made Adam, it's not good for man to be

alone. He wants us to do life together. And research shows us that when we do life together, it leads to

longer lives, it leads to better lives, richer lives.

And actually, when you don't do life with other people, there's a lot of pain that we experience,

and there's consequence. In fact, this last week I was doing some research, and I found it to be

interesting. The consequence of isolation or loneliness.

So not having a whole lot of friends affects our health.

And studies show us that it's actually worse to be lonely than it is to smoke 15 cigarettes

a day.

Now somebody just said, I knew it.

I needed a reason to smoke.

I got a bunch of friends. That's three-fourths of a pack a day.

And that was not the point. So if you walk out of here, that's not what I was intending to say.

But the consequence of isolation or loneliness on our lives impacts us deeply.

And today what I want to talk about is the idea or the subject of investing

our lives and friendships. And I want to begin with the concept of how much time does it

take to build a friendship? How much time does it take for us to form community? I saw this research

report done by Kansas University that talked about the number of hours that was required

...