Sermon Central
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Peer Pressure Series
Contributed by Brian Menear on Aug 6, 2007 (message contributor)
Summary: The youth of this generation face incredible peer pressure. How can they combat it?
Peer Pressure (NIV)
(How Ungodly Friends Lead You Astray)
INTRO
The youth of our generation faces incredible peer pressure and dangers every day in the world.
Every day:
1,000 unwed teenage girls become mothers
1,106 teenage girls get abortions
4,219 teenagers contract sexually transmitted diseases
500 adolescents begin using drugs
1,000 adolescents begin drinking alcohol
135,000 kids bring guns or other weapons to school
3,610 teens are assaulted; 80 are raped
2,200 teens drop out of high school
6 teens commit suicide
(Taken from "Right from Wrong" by Josh Mcdowell page 18)
Every generation has had its own pressures but the current faces perhaps the toughest and most dangerous of challenges.
Peer Pressure Nowadays
1 Pressure to drink/try alcohol
2 Pressure to experiment with drugs
3 Pressure for Pre-marital sex
4 Pressure to disobey parents
5 Pressure to disobey God
When a person falls prey to theses pressures, they are falling victim to their sinful nature. The end result is not worth the short-term feelings.
Galatians5:19-21
GAL 5:19 The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20 idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21 and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.
PR 16:17 The highway of the upright avoids evil; he who guards his way guards his life.
Just because “everybody’s doing it” doesn’t mean you have to
EX 23:2 "Do not follow the crowd in doing wrong.”
Just because you are young doesn’t mean you cant set an example and refuse to follow the “in crowd”.
12 Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity.
Where does peer pressure come from?
Friends
Society/Popular Culture
Since friends have the most influence lets look at that first.
PR 17:17 A friend loves at all times,
If a person really is your friend they wont try to talk you into doing something bad.
They will show love by not leading you down the wrong paths.
Some of you have the wrong kind of friends and have been walking down the wrong kind of paths.
2CO 6:14 Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?
AM 3:3 Do two walk together unless they have agreed to do so?
Don’t hang around with ungodly people or have ungodly friends unless you are on a mission to witness to them and lead them to righteousness.
If you hang around with ungodly people long enough (even if you are saved) they can influence you to do something bad.
PR 13:20 He who walks with the wise grows wise, but a companion of fools suffers harm.
Society/Pop Culture
Children bombarded by images of sex, drugs, rebellion, violence in TV, movies, video games, and internet.
Pop Culture- "It’s ok to drink, do drugs, have unprotected sex"
Now that we have looked at who influences, lets look at what they influence us to do.
1 Alcohol
These sobering statistics show how alcohol affects the world of a child. They are from http://www.niaaa.nih.gov/ResearchInformation/
Alcohol is the #1 drug of choice among our Nation’s youth.
1
Research indicates that adolescents who abuse alcohol may remember 10% less of what they have learned than those who don’t drink.
2
In a 2003 National Survey on Drug Use & Health, persons reporting first use of alcohol before age 15 were more than 5 times as likely to report past year alcohol dependence or abuse than persons who first used alcohol at age 21 or older (16% vs. 3%).
3
Almost 20% of 8th-graders, and 42% of 10th-graders have been drunk at least once.
More than 11% of 8th-graders, 22% of 10th-graders, and 29% of 12th-graders report binge drinking (five drinks in a row in the last two weeks)
Dangers of Alcohol
Nearly 75% of all Americans drink at least occasionally
13 million people in America have alcohol problems
7 million people in this country are in some form of alcoholism
50% of fatal car crashes involve drunkenness
64% or murders are associated with alcohol
1 out of every 10 “social drinkers” become alcoholic
Alcohol is the # 2 killer behind heart disease, even more than cancer
500,000 Americans die each year from alcoholism
What does the Bible say about Alcohol?
PR 20:1 Wine is a mocker and beer a brawler; whoever is led astray by them is not wise.
The things we’re talking about today (Alcohol, Drugs, Sex) are all things that Satan tries to tempt you into in order to defile your body.
