Finding Friends

Friends influence you

1 Corinthians 15:33–34 (ESV) — 33 Do not be deceived: “Bad company ruins good morals.” 34 Wake up from your drunken stupor, as is right, and do not go on sinning. For some have no knowledge of God. I say this to your shame.

Proverbs 12:26 (ESV) — 26 One who is righteous is a guide to his neighbor, but the way of the wicked leads them astray.

Psalm 1:1–2 (ESV) — 1 Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; 2 but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night.

Proverbs 17:17 (ESV) — 17 A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.

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

Proverbs 13:20 (ESV) — 20 Whoever walks with the wise becomes wise, but the companion of fools will suffer harm.

Proverbs 16:28 (ESV) — 28 A dishonest man spreads strife, and a whisperer separates close friends.

Proverbs 22:24–25 (ESV) — 24 Make no friendship with a man given to anger, nor go with a wrathful man, 25 lest you learn his ways and entangle yourself in a snare.

John 15:12–17 (ESV) — 12 “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command you. 15 No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. 16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. 17 These things I command you, so that you will love one another.

Loneliness - Fake friends will leave you feeling lonely

Peer Pressure - Fake friends will not value your boundaries

Peer Pressure will offer you acceptance but it always cost more than you get

True friends accept you for you

God loved us for us not for who we could be