Teen Pathways, with Tuwan Ussery 00:00:09.52\00:00:14.26 Hi, and welcome to Teen Pathways. My name is Tuwan 00:00:19.00\00:00:22.91 Ussery and here I have with me some students from Fletcher 00:00:22.94\00:00:26.82 Academy. My name is Becca 00:00:26.85\00:00:29.56 Gallant and I am 16 and I am a junior at Fletcher Academy. 00:00:29.59\00:00:33.34 Hi my name is Rebekah Nicholaides, and I am a senior, 00:00:33.37\00:00:37.56 finally, and I am 17 years old. 00:00:37.59\00:00:39.19 My name is Andrew Eszler and I'm a junior and I'm 16 years old. 00:00:39.23\00:00:43.39 Hi I'm Jonathan Bonjour I'm a senior and I'm 17 years old. 00:00:43.42\00:00:48.97 Hi I'm Casey Herbert I'm 16 and I'm a junior. 00:00:49.01\00:00:52.54 Hi I'm Kristin Eszler I'm a senior and I'm 18 years old. 00:00:52.58\00:00:57.28 Alright, so it seems that we have juniors and seniors. 00:00:57.69\00:01:00.99 Are you all happy and ready to get out of school? 00:01:01.03\00:01:03.48 - YES! - Oh, YES! 00:01:03.52\00:01:05.43 Well, I love talking to people and when I talk to young people 00:01:05.47\00:01:10.01 I see that some of the problems that they go through is 00:01:10.05\00:01:12.91 learning how to deal with temptations. 00:01:12.95\00:01:15.00 Does anybody have that problem here? 00:01:15.03\00:01:16.68 - No. - Not really? 00:01:17.71\00:01:19.52 Well, have you ever made a compromise for somebody, 00:01:20.46\00:01:24.07 or for a friend, have you ever compromised your beliefs, 00:01:24.10\00:01:27.13 for somebody? 00:01:27.17\00:01:28.18 My sister is an atheist and she doesn't believe in anything and 00:01:30.12\00:01:34.04 she came down here this summer and I usually don't listen to 00:01:34.58\00:01:38.81 secular music on Sabbath, if ever, and she wanted to 00:01:38.85\00:01:46.00 and I compromised it and it's just a little thing, but it 00:01:46.04\00:01:49.08 still kind of affected me. So... - How did it affect you? 00:01:49.11\00:01:51.73 It made me feel really bad and it made me feel like I was weak 00:01:51.76\00:01:55.11 and that my faith wasn't enough and that I wasn't a very good 00:01:55.14\00:02:01.18 witness to my sister. 00:02:01.21\00:02:02.36 So we do have some problems with temptation from time to time. 00:02:02.39\00:02:05.10 Has anybody else had a circumstance where you 00:02:05.14\00:02:09.26 made a compromise for somebody? 00:02:09.30\00:02:10.60 Well, I have situations all the time where, you know, you may be 00:02:10.64\00:02:14.68 at a party at a friend's house and it could be their birthday 00:02:14.93\00:02:17.65 or something and they may decide to watch something on TV 00:02:17.68\00:02:22.89 that you wouldn't watch normally, but you watch it 00:02:22.92\00:02:28.51 because you don't want to upset anyone. It's their birthday, 00:02:28.55\00:02:31.32 it's supposed to be a happy occasion and so you 00:02:31.36\00:02:33.16 compromise and do something that you wouldn't normally do. 00:02:33.20\00:02:35.18 Just because you want to keep the peace, basically. 00:02:35.21\00:02:38.74 Because you want to keep the peace... 00:02:38.78\00:02:40.17 When you make those compromises how does it make you feel? 00:02:40.21\00:02:43.08 What's going on inside of you? 00:02:43.11\00:02:44.65 Well, I know when I make compromises all the time 00:02:46.59\00:02:49.85 You always feel like there's something in the back of 00:02:52.09\00:02:56.09 your mind saying that was wrong, you shouldn't have done that 00:02:56.13\00:02:59.39 and it bothers you a long time. - Sometimes you feel that your 00:02:59.43\00:03:04.35 faith wasn't strong enough to stand up for what you believe in 00:03:04.38\00:03:06.89 and that just leaves you feeling guilty and not good about 00:03:06.93\00:03:09.70 yourself sometimes. 00:03:09.74\00:03:10.74 What are some of the things that we can do to stand up 00:03:11.58\00:03:13.75 against the crowd and not make these compromises? 00:03:13.79\00:03:16.90 What are some things that we can do to help us out with that? 00:03:16.94\00:03:20.27 Well we can get together with friends and go out on hikes or 00:03:20.30\00:03:23.60 somewhere out in nature or just play games in the house or 00:03:23.63\00:03:28.01 something that wouldn't be compromising to us, you know, 00:03:28.05\00:03:31.53 that everyone would enjoy doing. - You just surround yourself 00:03:31.57\00:03:34.40 with good Christian people who you know aren't going to try to 00:03:34.44\00:03:36.63 tempt you to do something that you're uncomfortable with. 00:03:36.66\00:03:39.75 Make sure that you choose the right people and that you 00:03:40.08\00:03:43.40 stay away from the people that may be making bad decisions. 00:03:43.44\00:03:47.95 I mean, you can witness to them but you should always just 00:03:47.99\00:03:52.99 keep yourself around people who will encourage you and 00:03:53.02\00:03:55.29 not bring you down. 00:03:55.32\00:03:56.29 You plan positive activities that keep you busy and then 00:03:56.30\00:03:59.23 you're not going to be bored and want to do something that 00:03:59.26\00:04:03.08 may not be so good. 00:04:03.11\00:04:04.29 I hear a lot of you talking about friends and the people 00:04:04.72\00:04:08.37 that you hang around with. 00:04:08.40\00:04:10.08 Tell me, what is a true friend? 00:04:10.36\00:04:12.37 Someone who's loyal and trustworthy. Someone who can 00:04:13.07\00:04:16.75 listen to you and someone you can relate to. 00:04:16.78\00:04:18.60 Why is loyalty so important? 00:04:20.03\00:04:22.31 Because if someone's not loyal then how could you rely on them 00:04:23.24\00:04:27.88 because if they're not loyal to you then 00:04:27.97\00:04:30.47 they usually don't really care. 00:04:31.00\00:04:34.20 What are some other things that are important? 00:04:34.87\00:04:36.78 What are some qualities you look for when you're 00:04:36.81\00:04:39.18 trying to find some good friends? 00:04:39.24\00:04:40.66 I look for a friend who can be honest, that is their, 00:04:40.70\00:04:47.91 they can listen to you... and they wouldn't mind 00:04:48.30\00:04:52.15 telling you if you're doing something wrong 00:04:52.89\00:04:55.18 - Right. and pointing out to you. 00:04:55.21\00:04:57.12 They're not going to tell you something just because that's 00:04:57.16\00:05:00.37 what you want to hear. 00:05:00.40\00:05:01.83 Now, how much honesty is too much honesty, do you think? 00:05:01.87\00:05:05.25 Would you want somebody telling you totally and truly about 00:05:05.29\00:05:09.66 yourself, even though you can't really handle it? 00:05:09.70\00:05:12.40 You don't want a friend to bash you, 00:05:12.43\00:05:15.00 and completely tell you that what you're doing is wrong 00:05:15.03\00:05:18.04 and that you're a bad person or anything. 00:05:18.08\00:05:20.75 But you want them to be able to correct you in a positive way 00:05:20.79\00:05:23.69 and uplift you and encourage you not just point out your 00:05:23.72\00:05:28.66 mistakes. Yeah, you don't want them to be critical of 00:05:28.69\00:05:31.47 everything you do but you want them to be to where you're doing 00:05:31.51\00:05:36.81 something that may not be good, that they're going to care 00:05:36.85\00:05:39.39 enough about you that they are going to want to tell you, 00:05:39.43\00:05:41.02 that's not to be good. That's going to hurt you or someone 00:05:41.06\00:05:44.80 else in the long run so you need to be thinking about that. 00:05:44.84\00:05:46.92 So honesty, somebody that really cares about you so they can 00:05:46.96\00:05:52.52 totally be honest and let you know what's going on with you 00:05:52.55\00:05:56.31 without letting you down. 00:05:56.34\00:05:57.31 What are some other qualities in friends that you look for? 00:05:57.32\00:06:00.44 What's some more qualities? 00:06:00.47\00:06:01.59 Someone who is willing to 00:06:02.59\00:06:04.54 listen. Friends are so important in our lives. 00:06:05.57\00:06:08.41 Half of the reason we go to school is because of friends 00:06:09.55\00:06:12.72 and we have struggles, those temptations that we do go 00:06:12.84\00:06:18.74 through we want to be able to talk to our friends because they 00:06:18.77\00:06:22.56 can help us to encourage us to do the right thing and just 00:06:22.60\00:06:26.40 listening helps so much in a 00:06:26.44\00:06:28.29 friend. I think you also want, I personally would want 00:06:29.39\00:06:33.64 somebody that has a sense of humor too, because if you're 00:06:33.67\00:06:36.83 having a bad day and you're really down, 00:06:36.87\00:06:40.14 if somebody has a sense of humor it's really easy to... 00:06:40.18\00:06:44.43 lift somebody's spirits. 00:06:47.07\00:06:48.58 I would like to look for someone who is similar to you and 00:06:49.52\00:06:53.77 has similar likes and goals in life about 00:06:53.80\00:06:58.03 religious things but wouldn't have to necessarily be 00:06:58.07\00:07:00.23 religious either. 00:07:00.27\00:07:01.24 So those are definitely some good points, some good qualities 00:07:02.28\00:07:05.93 that we look for in friends. Let me ask you this. 00:07:05.97\00:07:08.39 At first we were talking about compromises. 00:07:08.43\00:07:10.30 I want to ask you a question. Has anybody here tried to get 00:07:10.74\00:07:15.73 somebody to compromise for their own selfish reasons? 00:07:15.77\00:07:18.43 Have you ever tried to get somebody, have you ever tried to 00:07:19.56\00:07:21.71 tempt somebody to do something that you wanted them to do? 00:07:21.74\00:07:24.77 When I lived in California, we used to always... 00:07:29.07\00:07:31.77 I had a friend who was a Christian 00:07:31.81\00:07:34.20 and I always used to think that he was just a bummer because 00:07:34.24\00:07:38.11 he wouldn't go out on Sundays, he wouldn't do anything, 00:07:38.14\00:07:42.41 go anywhere and just have fun on Sundays. 00:07:42.45\00:07:46.09 He just wanted to stay home and spend time with God 00:07:46.13\00:07:48.18 and we always tried to get him to come with us, because we 00:07:48.22\00:07:53.21 really thought that it was a drag that he wouldn't do it, so. 00:07:53.24\00:07:56.55 What does the Bible say about friends? 00:07:58.28\00:08:00.22 It has a couple of things to say about it: 00:08:01.06\00:08:03.80 One's in James 1:5, it says, If any of you lacks wisdom 00:08:03.83\00:08:08.95 he should ask God who gives generously to all without 00:08:08.99\00:08:12.96 finding fault, and it will be given to him. 00:08:12.99\00:08:15.00 So if we ask Him, He'll give us wisdom to choose the right 00:08:15.04\00:08:18.19 friends that can help us when we need them, and we can 00:08:18.22\00:08:21.41 help each other. 00:08:21.45\00:08:22.42 That's very good that you brought that out. 00:08:22.43\00:08:24.34 I appreciate that. When we think about 00:08:24.38\00:08:26.79 the life of Jesus, let me ask you a question. 00:08:26.83\00:08:29.32 Do you think Jesus was a good friend? 00:08:29.35\00:08:30.63 - Yes. - He was? 00:08:30.66\00:08:32.37 How was Jesus a good friend? 00:08:32.40\00:08:33.80 He was very loyal, an example is with Peter. Peter denied Him 00:08:33.84\00:08:39.85 three times, but God never deserted him or left him 00:08:39.89\00:08:45.00 or talked bad about him. He was still his friend and 00:08:45.04\00:08:47.75 He forgave him and He still loved him. 00:08:47.79\00:08:49.66 That's how we should be toward our friends and 00:08:49.70\00:08:52.27 that's how we should want our friends to be with us. 00:08:52.31\00:08:54.20 What are some other things that Jesus did to show His 00:08:54.23\00:08:58.90 true friendship to his disciples or just to people 00:08:58.94\00:09:01.51 He came in contact with? 00:09:01.54\00:09:02.79 Jesus was a friend to people that didn't necessarily have 00:09:04.03\00:09:07.74 any other friends, people that were considered outcasts. 00:09:07.77\00:09:11.21 He was a Jew, He spoke to the Samaritan woman at the well, 00:09:12.15\00:09:15.04 He spoke to... - Mary Magdalene. 00:09:15.07\00:09:20.41 Mary Magdalene, yes. People that just had a very 00:09:20.44\00:09:23.32 poor reputation and He talked to them anyway because, 00:09:23.35\00:09:26.68 He wanted to show that God loved those people too, and so 00:09:27.72\00:09:31.56 He was nice to them as well. He was even nice to people that 00:09:31.77\00:09:35.57 persecuted Him and that told Him and tried to catch Him in the 00:09:35.60\00:09:41.59 act of blasphemy and He was even nice to those people and He even 00:09:41.63\00:09:47.70 tried to just be encouraging to them and even when He was on the 00:09:47.74\00:09:51.69 cross He said "God forgive them. " He was trying to reach out and 00:09:52.60\00:09:55.93 be friends to everyone and that's the perfect friend. 00:09:55.97\00:10:00.18 That's totally awesome! 00:10:00.21\00:10:01.28 He was the example for us. He had unconditional love, 00:10:01.32\00:10:06.26 He showed to everyone, He preached, He healed. 00:10:06.29\00:10:09.57 There's so many things that He did for people and 00:10:09.61\00:10:12.99 He did it willingly. 00:10:13.02\00:10:14.92 He didn't even think about it twice. 00:10:14.95\00:10:17.99 You mentioned the cross, you mentioned when Jesus 00:10:19.82\00:10:22.32 was on the cross and He said to His Father, 00:10:22.35\00:10:25.50 "Father forgive them for they know not what they do. " 00:10:25.53\00:10:27.87 What happened with the situation with the thief? 00:10:27.90\00:10:30.37 Was Jesus a friend to the thief, that was beside him on the 00:10:30.41\00:10:33.43 cross? Yes, the thief didn't have time to go out and show 00:10:33.47\00:10:39.52 that he could follow all the Ten Commandments or 00:10:39.55\00:10:41.29 sell his stuff and give to the poor, 00:10:41.33\00:10:43.58 but he asked God and God said that he could be with Him in 00:10:43.62\00:10:48.13 heaven, he had the faith and that is all he could do at that 00:10:48.17\00:10:51.11 time. God was just so encouraging to him and even 00:10:52.74\00:10:56.90 though, like Kristin said, he didn't have time to make 00:10:56.94\00:11:01.05 everything right, God knew his heart and He knew that he really 00:11:01.09\00:11:05.77 did want to repent and He just reached out in love to the guy 00:11:05.80\00:11:09.77 and that's just the perfect friend that anybody could ever 00:11:09.81\00:11:14.03 have. - Absolutely. - And not only that, you know. 00:11:14.33\00:11:16.27 He's excepting the thief as he is with all his problems, 00:11:16.31\00:11:19.63 but not only that, Jesus is in His worst hour, 00:11:19.67\00:11:23.50 He's on the cross, He's separated from His Father. 00:11:23.54\00:11:26.15 Which has never happened to Him before, but He still takes 00:11:26.18\00:11:29.40 the time to help someone else even though it's the worst time 00:11:29.44\00:11:34.13 that He's ever been through. He's still thinking of others 00:11:34.16\00:11:36.02 first, which is what we should do as friends if we want to 00:11:36.05\00:11:39.45 follow Jesus' example. 00:11:39.49\00:11:40.63 Exactly, Jesus when He was on the cross, was at His worst 00:11:41.37\00:11:44.29 moment, but then He took time off to stop dying to help 00:11:44.33\00:11:48.41 somebody else and to deal with that person's needs. 00:11:48.45\00:11:51.06 What about Thomas? When Jesus was resurrected. 00:11:51.10\00:11:55.31 What happened with Thomas? Jesus made a special trip to see 00:11:55.35\00:11:59.75 Thomas for what reason? 00:11:59.79\00:12:01.33 Well, when the disciples told him that He was risen, he didn't 00:12:02.07\00:12:08.25 believe them. He thought, well, they might have been seeing 00:12:08.28\00:12:12.41 things or something and when Jesus came there he was, 00:12:12.45\00:12:17.54 I think, in ah that he just didn't believe him and wasn't 00:12:17.58\00:12:24.12 what he should have done. And Christ took the time to 00:12:24.15\00:12:28.33 show Himself that He was real to His friend, even though he 00:12:28.37\00:12:31.38 doubted, even though he didn't have the faith. Christ still 00:12:31.42\00:12:34.99 took the time just to say I'm here, I'm here for you, I know 00:12:35.02\00:12:40.17 you didn't believe it, but I want to show you that I am here 00:12:40.20\00:12:44.54 for you and I truly am alive. 00:12:44.57\00:12:46.66 And I hear what you're saying. If we want to know the true 00:12:47.79\00:12:51.93 qualities of a friendship, of a friend we can look to the Bible 00:12:51.97\00:12:54.94 and see what Jesus did and see how Jesus treated people 00:12:54.97\00:12:58.06 and just look at all the things that He did. 00:12:58.10\00:13:01.85 What else does the Bible say about friends? 00:13:01.88\00:13:03.84 It also says, that, in 1 Corinthians 15:33, 00:13:03.88\00:13:08.92 "Do not be misled: Bad company corrupts good character. " 00:13:09.56\00:13:13.61 And so, when we are around bad people who do bad stuff 00:13:13.65\00:13:18.20 like drugs and stuff we're going to get pulled in to that 00:13:18.23\00:13:21.04 cause it's hard to stay true to what you believe and so you have 00:13:21.07\00:13:24.32 to have your friends that will keep you from doing those 00:13:24.36\00:13:27.23 things. Being human, everybody is tempted by all these 00:13:27.26\00:13:33.74 temptations and especially in America we have so many 00:13:33.77\00:13:37.11 temptations, because we've been desensitized to so much stuff 00:13:37.75\00:13:42.63 and then it doesn't seem that 00:13:42.66\00:13:44.36 bad to us. But there's hope for us because even though we are 00:13:44.39\00:13:47.70 tempted God was tempted in all respects and, you know, He will 00:13:47.73\00:13:52.36 provide a way out if we choose to let Him help us in that 00:13:52.40\00:13:56.87 situation. But it's best that we don't place our self in it, you 00:13:56.90\00:14:00.31 know to have friends that will be an encouragement and uplift 00:14:00.35\00:14:07.29 you and show you God, through their actions in their lives. 00:14:07.33\00:14:12.37 And God even said in the Bible, if a door closes another 00:14:12.41\00:14:17.52 will open, and He says that He will never tempt us and just the 00:14:17.56\00:14:23.31 fact that He says that He will never tempt us beyond what we 00:14:23.35\00:14:28.19 can take is so encouraging, because there are so many things 00:14:28.23\00:14:31.90 in this world that we wouldn't be able to say no to, because 00:14:31.94\00:14:37.37 we are human beings and we do have sin our lives and it's so 00:14:37.41\00:14:42.03 cool that God is just standing there like a wall, just saying 00:14:42.07\00:14:44.81 I won't let them tempt you, tempt you beyond what you can 00:14:44.86\00:14:48.97 do. It shows what His love is. 00:14:49.01\00:14:51.26 That's the reason we need Jesus as our friend, our best 00:14:51.32\00:14:54.44 friend, while we may have earthly friends, but we need 00:14:54.47\00:14:57.71 Jesus as our best friend, because He's the one who's going 00:14:57.75\00:15:01.02 to be there for us all the time and that can understand 00:15:01.05\00:15:05.32 everything that goes on because He's been tempted the same way 00:15:05.36\00:15:10.85 and so he can help us and if we ask for His help we can get 00:15:10.89\00:15:14.06 through anything. How do we ask for his help? what are some of 00:15:16.20\00:15:18.48 the things we can do to ask for His help, when we need that help 00:15:18.51\00:15:22.27 from Jesus? By praying, I think prayer is one of the main ways 00:15:22.30\00:15:26.03 to communicate with Him, because we can pray wherever we're at. 00:15:26.06\00:15:29.43 We can pray while were driving down the road or when we are 00:15:29.46\00:15:32.66 kneeling beside our bed at night. We don't even have to have our eyes closed, 00:15:32.69\00:15:35.43 just to commune with Him. And I think that really draws 00:15:35.47\00:15:39.94 you closer to Him. Also studying the Bible too. 00:15:39.98\00:15:43.02 Studying the Bible helps you to know how to avoid the 00:15:44.15\00:15:48.42 temptations and it also shows you who Christ was and how to 00:15:48.45\00:15:54.64 live like Him and how He avoided the temptation is just an 00:15:54.68\00:15:58.22 example for us. I found when I study the Bible and pray in the 00:15:59.06\00:16:01.53 morning, sometimes I get out of that routine. When I do 00:16:01.57\00:16:03.61 it helps you be nicer that day, it helps you treat people better 00:16:03.65\00:16:09.06 and you have a better attitude that just improves your day. 00:16:09.10\00:16:11.69 It's not always going to be a good day, but it will 00:16:11.73\00:16:14.98 help you get through the day and have a good attitude about it. 00:16:15.02\00:16:17.97 I heard a preacher saying, not to long ago, that when 00:16:18.30\00:16:21.84 you get out of bed the first thing you should do is roll out 00:16:21.87\00:16:24.46 on your knees and surrender your will to God that day and 00:16:24.50\00:16:27.84 let Him lead and direct you in the choices that you should 00:16:27.87\00:16:32.67 make. And we should be able to talk to God all day just like 00:16:32.71\00:16:35.69 when we're hanging out with our friends. 00:16:35.73\00:16:37.55 We're not necessarily sitting there talking to them the 00:16:37.58\00:16:41.27 whole time we're hanging out, but it should be the same way 00:16:41.31\00:16:44.41 with God. We should know that He's always right there with us 00:16:44.45\00:16:46.43 and that whenever we want to start up a conversation with Him 00:16:46.46\00:16:49.22 that He's right there, He's ready listen, 00:16:49.25\00:16:51.37 He's ready to hear our problems and to give us advice. 00:16:51.40\00:16:54.35 So we should just, we should never shut the door to Him. 00:16:54.38\00:16:58.12 He should always be right there in our minds, where we know 00:16:58.16\00:17:00.65 we can talk to Him any time and He's going to listen. 00:17:00.68\00:17:03.17 Now you said something quite interesting, that we should 00:17:03.80\00:17:06.70 never shut the door to God. Just reflecting back on Jesus 00:17:06.74\00:17:11.04 and His situation with Peter and situation with Thomas, how 00:17:11.07\00:17:14.49 Peter denied Him and Thomas didn't really believe until 00:17:14.53\00:17:18.08 Jesus showed. You know, if that was us we probably 00:17:18.11\00:17:20.66 would have wrote Peter and Thomas off as friends. 00:17:20.69\00:17:23.55 Do you agree? 00:17:23.58\00:17:25.33 - Yeah. - Yeah. 00:17:25.37\00:17:27.09 What are some of the things that we can do 00:17:27.13\00:17:28.60 to be a positive influence? 00:17:28.63\00:17:30.02 I heard someone say, about reading the Bible 00:17:30.06\00:17:32.44 and how the Bible changes our behavior and how it has such a 00:17:32.48\00:17:36.12 overwhelming influence on our behavior. 00:17:36.15\00:17:38.76 What are some of the things we can do to have a positive 00:17:38.79\00:17:43.26 behavior and to be a positive influence to our friends? 00:17:43.29\00:17:46.86 Basically through our actions we show our friends everything of 00:17:46.90\00:17:54.66 who we are and if we show them something negative they're going 00:17:54.69\00:17:58.46 to think of us negative and it will bring us down and make us 00:17:58.49\00:18:01.60 think negatively, but if we try and have a positive outlook, 00:18:01.63\00:18:06.87 if we pray to have a positive outlook God will give it to us 00:18:06.91\00:18:09.75 and we'll show our friends what it's like to be a Christian and 00:18:09.78\00:18:14.43 how happy we are and how peaceful we are and 00:18:14.46\00:18:16.86 just seeing my friends after I'm kind to them or we have 00:18:16.89\00:18:22.15 a good time when we're in a positive mood, just seeing 00:18:22.19\00:18:25.51 them get happy makes me even get more excited about everything. 00:18:25.55\00:18:30.23 So I heard you said attitude. is there anything else that 00:18:30.27\00:18:36.00 will help us be a positive influence besides having 00:18:36.03\00:18:39.25 the right attitude? 00:18:39.29\00:18:40.35 I think you also need to be an example, a specific example of 00:18:41.58\00:18:51.85 Jesus or try to be as close as possible, because then if you do 00:18:51.89\00:18:56.18 you would just be more happy, you'll make everyone around you 00:18:56.22\00:19:03.74 happy and it would just make the environment happy. 00:19:03.77\00:19:08.27 Well, and when you're praising God you have to remember 00:19:08.31\00:19:11.15 that God created you so when you're going through your day 00:19:11.18\00:19:15.90 every single breath that you take, God has given you that 00:19:15.94\00:19:20.35 breath and so as a way of thanking Him as a way of 00:19:20.38\00:19:23.35 praising Him and glorifying Him, if you just live your day to the 00:19:23.39\00:19:27.72 best of your ability and ask God to help you and let Him lead you 00:19:27.85\00:19:32.63 through your day that is glorifying Him and witnessing 00:19:32.67\00:19:35.93 for Him and giving Him back some of what He's given to you 00:19:35.97\00:19:39.88 and just letting you live through the day. 00:19:39.91\00:19:41.58 And just that thought alone helps you want to stay away 00:19:41.61\00:19:46.46 from temptation. Just the thought that He gave us our 00:19:46.50\00:19:49.85 breath and He gave us our bodies and our life just encourages us 00:19:49.89\00:19:55.32 that we don't want to mess it up. We don't want to be the ones 00:19:55.35\00:19:58.10 to destroy the most precious thing to God. 00:19:58.14\00:20:01.67 I believe that God is a fun loving God and He 00:20:01.70\00:20:05.08 wants us to enjoy life, but through the people we 00:20:05.25\00:20:10.56 hang out with and different things like that we can share 00:20:10.60\00:20:14.15 the message and we can make it interesting. It depends on 00:20:14.18\00:20:19.73 your attitude, as you were saying earlier, your attitude 00:20:19.76\00:20:22.67 makes a big difference on how you show others around you 00:20:22.70\00:20:26.16 what God is like and when you're witnessing and you want to draw 00:20:26.19\00:20:32.38 people into the church, you want to have that happiness, 00:20:32.41\00:20:36.81 you want to show them not only the respect, but also how much 00:20:36.84\00:20:41.82 God loves you and that He sent His son and 00:20:41.86\00:20:44.05 everything else like that too. 00:20:44.39\00:20:45.69 Has there ever been a time your attitude was not quite positive 00:20:46.82\00:20:51.24 and it was negative and instead of having a positive influence 00:20:51.27\00:20:54.00 on your friends you had 00:20:54.04\00:20:55.35 sort of a negative influence on your friends? 00:20:55.38\00:20:57.50 Has that ever happened to anybody here? 00:20:57.57\00:20:58.91 You had a negative influence on your friend when you know 00:20:59.17\00:21:03.46 that you should have had a positive influence on him? 00:21:03.49\00:21:05.26 Well I know I have several times because when you just have a bad 00:21:05.30\00:21:10.90 attitude about the day you're being a negative influence 00:21:10.94\00:21:14.08 because Jesus was happy all the time. He didn't get down, 00:21:14.11\00:21:19.29 He was always uplifting and when you get in a bad attitude about 00:21:19.33\00:21:22.84 something it makes the rest of everybody around you 00:21:22.88\00:21:26.50 the same way. 00:21:26.53\00:21:27.70 It's like a rotten apple in a group of good ones. 00:21:28.24\00:21:32.32 Absolutely. 00:21:33.56\00:21:34.82 What does the Bible say on this situation? 00:21:34.85\00:21:38.17 Give me other scripture of what the Bible says about friendships 00:21:38.20\00:21:42.80 and about compromising your beliefs. 00:21:42.83\00:21:45.26 Well, Proverbs 13:20: It says, "He who walks with the wise 00:21:45.70\00:21:50.58 grows wise, but a companion of fools suffers harm. " 00:21:50.62\00:21:54.16 And so it depends who we go with and that's how we're going to 00:21:54.59\00:21:58.47 probably end up being like. 00:21:58.54\00:22:00.28 If they're mean to everybody, will probably end up being 00:22:03.01\00:22:07.44 like them. I don't think we really want that. 00:22:07.48\00:22:09.94 You should just want to surround yourself with people you 00:22:11.07\00:22:13.50 want to be like. That's all it's saying. 00:22:13.54\00:22:16.61 Yeah and that's the best way to avoid temptation and the 00:22:16.65\00:22:21.04 best way to stay away from all that kind of stuff is to just 00:22:21.07\00:22:26.06 surround yourself with people who want to stay away from it 00:22:26.09\00:22:31.66 as much as you do. 00:22:31.69\00:22:32.81 And that can also work the other way too 'cause if you're looking 00:22:32.84\00:22:36.42 to be a good friend and you're looking to follow Jesus' example 00:22:36.46\00:22:39.00 then what your going to want to do, if you have to surround 00:22:39.03\00:22:42.12 yourself with positive friends in order to stay away from 00:22:42.15\00:22:45.31 temptation that means that you should also be a positive friend 00:22:45.35\00:22:47.88 and be a positive influence to the people that are around you 00:22:47.92\00:22:50.76 because it can really make a difference in their life. 00:22:50.80\00:22:53.02 I think, like you said, being a positive influence. 00:22:53.06\00:22:56.09 It doesn't just go by, your actions and your words should 00:22:56.13\00:23:00.49 be the same. You shouldn't act one way but then talk another. 00:23:00.53\00:23:05.05 We need to be consistent in what we do and what we say. 00:23:05.08\00:23:08.68 That's a very good point because Jesus was definitely consistent. 00:23:09.51\00:23:13.03 He was consistent with His attitude, being positive 00:23:13.06\00:23:16.54 to people. He was consistent with pretty much his whole life, 00:23:16.57\00:23:19.81 everything that He did. 00:23:19.85\00:23:21.90 Have you ever been inconsistent any way to any of your friends? 00:23:21.93\00:23:26.78 Inconsistent? Did your friend need you to do 00:23:26.82\00:23:29.73 something, but you didn't do it because you were inconsistent 00:23:29.76\00:23:34.06 in the situation? 00:23:34.09\00:23:35.89 I know a lot of times I've been in situations where sometimes 00:23:37.02\00:23:40.14 it'll hit me when I'm doing something because 00:23:40.18\00:23:42.11 I may have been talking to someone the day before, 00:23:42.14\00:23:44.52 someone that'll ask me for advice. Should I do this? 00:23:44.55\00:23:46.54 Should I not do that? What does the Bible say? 00:23:46.57\00:23:48.96 Is this wrong or is it right? Sometimes if it's wrong I'll be 00:23:49.00\00:23:53.38 telling them well, I think it's wrong and I'll show them where 00:23:53.55\00:23:55.61 it says. And then sometimes I'll find the next day that 00:23:55.65\00:24:00.02 I may be doing something that's almost exactly the same thing 00:24:00.06\00:24:03.68 that I told them what was wrong the day before and 00:24:03.71\00:24:06.08 if I'm doing it and then I can't tell them that it's wrong 'cause 00:24:06.11\00:24:11.90 that's just doing the opposite of what I say. 00:24:11.94\00:24:15.17 It's inconsistent. It's inconsistent. 00:24:15.25\00:24:17.66 'Cause if we tell them something and then we turn around and 00:24:17.69\00:24:21.80 do something else then they see our inconsistency and we are 00:24:21.84\00:24:25.37 not being a true friend to them. 00:24:25.40\00:24:27.03 Is there any other situation or experience that you had 00:24:27.37\00:24:29.59 where you were inconsistent with any friend or maybe your parents 00:24:29.62\00:24:33.29 or some time in school where you were inconsistent? 00:24:33.32\00:24:36.55 It could be with a teacher. 00:24:36.59\00:24:37.97 I've always had trouble getting along with my teachers and stuff 00:24:39.52\00:24:43.23 I've always been inconsistent. One time I'll be nice to them, 00:24:43.27\00:24:48.98 be really excited to see them, then the next day I'll just be 00:24:49.01\00:24:53.23 horribly mean to them and I feel bad about doing that. 00:24:53.27\00:24:57.68 It's hard to get out of a habit when you get into it. 00:25:00.01\00:25:03.46 Why do you think we're inconsistent from time to time? 00:25:05.00\00:25:07.27 Why do you think we go through our day and we try really hard 00:25:08.01\00:25:12.88 to be consistent to be a positive influence to do the 00:25:12.91\00:25:15.64 right thing to be a good friend but just certain times we don't 00:25:15.81\00:25:20.04 carry it out totally. 00:25:20.08\00:25:21.53 Why are we so inconsistent at times? 00:25:21.75\00:25:23.56 Well, I think we're humans and were not going to be perfect. 00:25:23.59\00:25:27.82 The only way we really can do right is through Christ and 00:25:27.85\00:25:32.95 the Holy Spirit. We have to ask Him in our life to direct us 00:25:32.99\00:25:36.11 because everyone has sinned. All have fallen short of the 00:25:36.15\00:25:41.62 glory of God, of the kingdom. Without God sending His Son 00:25:41.65\00:25:45.37 down here we couldn't go to heaven. 00:25:45.40\00:25:46.85 Yeah, being that we are human beings we all fall 00:25:48.09\00:25:52.77 and I don't think any of us are ever consistent because 00:25:52.80\00:25:58.53 one day you may be having a bad day and you just don't feel 00:25:58.56\00:26:02.73 like being nice to someone so you're not and that ruins it 00:26:02.77\00:26:07.10 all over and we have to start over everyday. 00:26:07.13\00:26:09.62 So it's really hard for us to ever be consistent. 00:26:09.66\00:26:12.52 So we have to go day to day asking for God's help 00:26:13.05\00:26:16.07 on a regular basis because otherwise there's no way that 00:26:16.10\00:26:18.82 we can ever be the true reflection of Jesus' character 00:26:18.85\00:26:22.18 that we are supposed to be as Christians. 00:26:22.22\00:26:24.05 There is no way without Christ that we could ever 00:26:24.09\00:26:27.03 avoid temptation. 00:26:27.07\00:26:29.08 You know, when Jesus was tempted in the wilderness He drew power 00:26:29.12\00:26:34.48 from His Father and He often time prayed. 00:26:34.52\00:26:38.06 So at this time let us do that let's end with the Lord's prayer 00:26:38.09\00:26:42.60 Let us close our eyes, and bow our heads and say it together. 00:26:42.64\00:26:45.50 Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. 00:26:45.54\00:26:50.45 Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heavn 00:26:50.48\00:26:55.99 Give us this day our daily bread. 00:26:56.02\00:26:58.82 And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. 00:26:58.86\00:27:02.70 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. 00:27:02.74\00:27:07.49 For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. 00:27:07.52\00:27:12.65 Amen. 00:27:12.69\00:27:14.02 Alright well thank you, thank you. 00:27:14.06\00:27:16.96 You know, when Jesus was tempted He knew exactly what to say 00:27:16.99\00:27:24.87 to hush Satan up and through the power of prayer 00:27:24.90\00:27:29.07 He was able to overcome the wiles of the Devil. 00:27:29.10\00:27:31.33 Through just depending upon His father, 00:27:31.36\00:27:33.89 He was able to overcome the wiles of the Devil. 00:27:33.92\00:27:36.36 Just by being consistent, 00:27:36.40\00:27:38.23 He was able to overcome the wiles of the Devil. 00:27:38.64\00:27:40.32 So let us be consistent in what we do and 00:27:40.35\00:27:42.03 let us always call upon Jesus. 00:27:42.07\00:27:43.71