Being Successful Friendship

Being Successful

Friendship

The Book of Proverbs is a book on Wisdom

The Book gives us wisdom concerning friends

Wisdom to find friends and how to be a friend

You cannot be successful without wise friends

You can’t keep those friends without being wise 

Friendship 

The Book gives us wisdom concerning Friends, Marriage,

Family, Work, Speech, Alcohol, Money, and Authority.

If we are to be successful we will need

wisdom in these important areas of our lives.

Imagine being Adam and God had not created Eve.

You have no other humans to communicate with for all eternity…

Alone

But we are not alone –

there are over 7,495,218,000 in the world.

The number is growing by the second.

The diversity is much more than skin deep.

The world is full of people who will help you and hurt you…

Intentionally and unintentionally.

Had you ever thought about your friends growing up?

Are there friends that if you had wisdom

you would have not been friends with?

If you were wiser would there have been people

who would have wanted to be your friends?

When it comes to friends wisdom makes a difference.

Although God loved Adam and He loved the world…

He intended for us to have friends.

Friends that would add value to us and we to them.

Friends are valuable.

 A friend loves at all times.  

Proverbs 17:17 NIV

Friends serve us with good council.

Perfume and incense bring joy to the heart,

and the pleasantness of one's friend

springs from his earnest counsel.

Proverbs 27:9 NIV

For lack of guidance a nation falls,

but many advisers make victory sure.

Proverbs 11:14 NIV

It is important that we choose good friends.

A man of many companions may come to ruin,

but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.

Proverbs 18:24 NIV

In choosing friends you do not want…

Gossipers, short-tempered, drinkers and gluttons,

rebels, liars, untrustworthy, inconsiderate, and violent.

Proverbs 20:19; 22:24-25; 23:20-21: 24:21-22: 25:18-20: 1:10-19

The friends we do want display wisdom.

The teaching of the wise is a fountain of life,

turning a man from the snares of death.

Proverbs 13:14 NIV

He who walks with the wise grows wise,

but a companion of fools suffers harm.

Proverbs 13:20 NIV

The wrong kind of friends can corrupt.

Do not be so deceived and misled! Evil

companionships (communion, associations) corrupt

and deprave good manners and morals and character.

1 Corinthians 15:33 AMP

Friendship is something you have to maintain.

Things that damage friendship…

Repeating everything you hear, getting into senseless arguments,

overstaying your welcome, meddling another’s affairs, joking

or saying things that make others look bad, happy-go-lucky

around a heavy heart, contention, insincere flattery.

Proverbs 17:9, 14; 25:17; 26:17, 18-19, 20, 21; 27:14

Offending a friend can build very strong barriers.

An offended brother is more unyielding than a fortified city,

and disputes are like the barred gates of a citadel.

Proverbs 18:19 NIV

Friendships can have conflict, so use wisdom in solving problems.

Problem solving starts with being pleasing to the Lord.

Proverbs 16:7

Be slow to anger and patient.

  Proverbs 15:18

Listen before you speak.

Proverbs 18:13

Avoid strife, quarreling.

Proverbs 20:3

Answer gently.

Proverbs 15:1

Hold your tongue and use few words.

 Proverbs 10:19

Show forgiveness for love covers all wrongs.

 Proverbs 10:12

When necessary rebuke rather than flatter.

 Proverbs 28:23

We were designed to have friends from the beginning.

When we apply the wisdom from God’s Word we can

enjoy the blessing of friends in this life and look

forward to enjoying these friends for all eternity.

It is God’s desire to be your friend,

consider what He has done for you.

Greater love has no one than this, that

he lay down his life for his friends.

John 15:13

Now consider the next verse that

describes our part in being a friend of God.

 You are my friends if you do what I command.

John 15:13 NIV

Remember it is not good enough to

be wise in your choice of friends.

You and I must also be a wise friend to others.

Scripture Reading

Proverbs 18:24-19:1 NIV

24 A man of many companions may come to ruin,

but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.