Sermon Central
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Framed - Pt. 4 - Friend Frame Series
Contributed by Steve Ely on Dec 4, 2012 (message contributor)
Summary: You are shaped by these forces. They determine your outlook, actions, and habits. Are you framed correctly?
Framed
Pt. 4 – Friend Frame
We have talked over the last 3 weeks about the impact and power of our mind to frame us! The way we think determines how we act. If we can ever learn to change the way we think we will learn to live in victory and we will defeat the enemy in our life!
So quickly we said your perception determines your reality. What’s in your head gets in your feet. When you get your head right everything else follows. So then we spent two weeks talking about how to think right. We said you have to fix your mind daily and as we do that it will fix our behavior. This is a battle because the mind is mean. So we need to get brain washed daily. How do we do that? We take on the mind of Christ. We think like Jesus! How did He think? He thought about the kingdom, serving, and death. We get brain washed by thinking the right things. You can’t keep thinking on the bad things and then wonder why we struggle with our thought life and ultimately our actions. Our actions line up with what we think on. We wash our brain by washing in the Word . . . how? We hear the Word, speak the Word, and meditate on the Word!
So our mind is powerful. I gave our mind 3 weeks because I believe it is the most powerful. However, I want to finish this by talking about one more factor that impacts how your world is shaped and framed!
We dealt with the mind from the wise man’s statements that your thoughts run your life and what you think determines what you are. So it is only appropriate that we look to the wise man again for information regarding the other factor that frames our life.
Text: Proverbs 12:26
The righteous should choose his friends carefully, for the way of the wicked leads them astray.
Notice it doesn’t indicate that it works the other way. The wicked lead the righteous astray. Don’t be fooled . . . you are probably not the exception!
The wise man understood the incredible impact and influence that our friends bring to bear on our world. They can frame us!
1. Be a picky people picker!
Be picky when it comes to people! Some of us choose pets more carefully than we do people. Some of us choose clothes more carefully. Who you allow into your life will frame you! We allow people to have access to our lives too easily at times. Before they are given access they must pass the lightmus test! I know you remember a litmus test from science class. But you had better learn about the lightmus test given to us in the New Testament to help us determine who we give entrance into our lives. It is found in
Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness?
Don’t become partners with those who reject God. How can you make a partnership out of right and wrong? That’s not partnership; that’s war. Is light best friends with dark? Does Christ go strolling with the Devil? Do trust and mistrust hold hands?
We want to use this as a weapon on those who are dating who they shouldn’t date and it does apply but we also fail to apply it in our own life! This admonishment speaks to more than just marriage or dating. It speaks to every relationship!
Addressing believers hanging out with those who don’t believe in the resurrection Paul says, “Evil company corrupts good character” (1 Corinthians 15:33). Do not be deceived: “Bad company ruins good morals.” “Don’t fool yourselves. Bad friends will destroy you.”
Ask Peter what just hanging out with the wrong crowd can do. In a matter of minutes the folks around a fire framed his world to the point that he denied Christ who he had just personally walked daily with for 3 ½ years. How many of us deny Christ daily because of who we hang out with? In minutes he was framed and yet you can spend every waking minute, eat every lunch with, surround yourself with people that don’t share your values and beliefs and it not impact you? Are you stronger than Peter? Maybe this is why Peter said, “Don’t let the errors of wicked people lead you down the wrong path and make you lose your balance.” (2 Peter 3:17)
So you are saying no friends that aren’t saved? No, what I am saying is you had better draw some boundaries in your life! You must understand that you can’t let those with no light try to teach you how to live in light. You can’t expect those who don’t know God to give you godly counsel!
