Wednesday Night Recap - Who Are You LIstening To?

Last week we began a new series called "Squeezed" where we look at the pressure that teens have to deal with and how to best overcome negative pressure. Last week we considered the dangers of running with the crowd. This week we asked the question, "Who are you listening to?" In life we all have decisions to make. Some are easy like what will I wear today? (OK, that is probably easier for the guys!) Other decisions are more difficult, like where will I go to college? As we face these decisions we need to consider who will we allow to exert the greatest influence over our lives? Who will you choose to listen to? In 1 Kings 12, we find the story of Rehoboam and a decision he faces about the treatment of the people. We has two options. The first option presented by the older, wiser men was to lighten the burden of the people. The option presented by his friends was to show no mercy and make their burden even heavier. Unfortunately for Rehoboam, he listened to his friends and ignored the counsel of the older men. This had catastrophic results for the nation of Israel! (For more information or the full story, read 1 Kings 12) So what lessons can we learn from Rehoboam? I think the first thing we can take from this story is that we must be honest about the quality of our friends. Typically our friends have the greatest influence in our lives. They influence us greater than our parents, our pastors and usually even God. We need to be willing to be honest about the quality of our friends. Do your friends have a positive or negative impact on you and your actions? Secondly, we need to listen to those who will help us think right and then do right. All choices we make have consequences. We must not set ourselves up for failure by only listening to those who tell us what we want to hear. Are we willing to listen to those that tell us the truth? Or have we just surrounded ourselves with people who encourage the lifestyle we are interested in, not what God is interested in? Third, we should also be strong enough in our faith to be able to tell the difference between right and wrong. In our lives, we will be challenged to see if our walk matches our talk. We must make sure that we know what we believe, and why we believe it. This helps make sure when the tough decisions come, we can stand firm in the truth of God's word and recognize when others are pulling us in the wrong direction. Proverbs 13:20 says, "Become wise by walking with the wise; hang out with fools and watch your life fall to pieces." Who are you hanging out with? Who are you listening to?