FCA Talk 3
If you’ve been with us – this is the context in which I share this message from the Lord

1. You are fearfully and wonderfully made. You are a masterpiece. God created you and God delights in you. The enemy hates you. He despises you. He is the father of lies. He seeks to steal, kill and destroy you…the masterpiece God created. There is a battle underway for your soul.
2. Because you are God’s masterpiece and He is your father – He has written you this book as a love letter. Its primary message is not damnation and this book is not a rule book. It is a love letter written to His children. It is a playbook like the football players have to play football. There are plays in here for offense and plays in here for defense. This is a living breathing document written to you for a full, abundant life.


At some point in your life you will be around friends moving in a different direction. Your friends can ultimately determine the direction of your life

In Proverbs 13:20 – “Walk with the wise and become wise but the companion of fools suffers harm.” The companion of fools suffers harm.

 Your greatest regrets in life don’t revolve around your enemies but rather your friends

 It is the foolish friend that gets us in a whole lot of trouble. A fool is someone who knows what the truth is…and doesn’t care.

 I can prove this – it isn’t you that your parents lay in bed worrying about….it is the fools you hang out with – whose car you are riding in, whose house you are going to

This verse says that if you hang out with wise people you will become wise – hang out with people making good decisions and you’ll end up making good decisions

The verse does not say “if you hang with a fool you will become a fool” – it says you will be impacted by them

“But I’ll never do the things they do so it won’t impact me.” The Bible says you are wrong.

If you think you are too cool, too connected, too rich that this won’t impact you…you’re wrong

If you have friends who don’t care about their life, don’t care about their reputation…they are not going to care about your life, your reputation

The companion of fools suffers harm.
So we need some guardrails to protect us from the cliffs.

Once you experience going over the guardrail and over the cliff – you’d give anything to go back and do it over again. THAT is what we are trying to avoid.

Here is a critical principle – NO ONE ever sees the accident coming. Accidents just happen. You can’t predict when it will happen. But if you drive 80 mph on a winding road, you greatly increase the odds you’re going to have an accident.

Here are some red warning flags to look out for…

 If you get in a car with a bunch of girls and the driver is texting or singing/dancing and not paying attention….

 If you have never gone to the drinking/drug parties and you go and say “I’ll go but I won’t participate…”

 If you hang out with bad folks with bad reputations and you think, “But I like them and it won’t harm me to be their friend”

 When you start hanging out with people and cannot be yourself – you start to act how you think they expect you to act. They are playing on your insecurity.

 If you feel pressure to compromise a core belief – drinking, sex, drugs, cheating, sneaking out of your house – when these things have never been a temptation and you are suddenly considering them

 Here’s a big one – When you hope the people you care most about….don’t find out where you’ve been. When you start to create an excuse just in case you get caught…

These are warning flags of impending danger and why you need to put some guardrails up.