Choose your friends carefully.

Steve Brown:
Choose your friends carefully. Let’s talk about it, on this edition of Key Life.

Matthew Porter:
This is Key Life, here to let Christians know that God isn’t mad at them. Keep listening and you’ll hear that because of what Jesus has done, you’re welcomed home into the family of God because of His radical grace, free from the penalties of sin and never alone in your suffering.

Steve Brown:
Thank you Matthew. We talked about anger yesterday, if you were listening, and you never listen to me. If we were in a seminary class, you would, because I’d test you on this material, and if I could figure out a way to do that, I could get you to listen more carefully. But if you were, and I’m kidding, if you were listening yesterday, you know that we talked about anger, and I gave somewhat of a confession. And you missed it, about how when I was young, I would be characterized in some ways as an angry person. And how that’s not so true. Now, it still bites me on occasion. But I’m a lot more kind and loving and gentle than I was, and that’s because God has been kind and loving and gentle to me. And we saw yesterday that the Bible never teaches don’t be angry, it teaches.

Be angry,

in the book of Ephesians

but don’t let the sun go down on your anger.

Translation from the original Greek, that means cut people’s slack. That means, don’t go to bed angry. That means be gracious and kind. And I’m learning that lesson. I haven’t learned it fully, but I’m better. But now let me show you something else that, since we’re on the subject of anger, it’s in Proverbs 22:14

Make no friendship with an angry man, and with a furious man do not go, lest you learn his ways and set a snare for your soul.

And then again, Proverbs 29:22

An angry man stirs up strife, and a furious man, and I would add woman, abounds in transgression.

In other words, be careful of your friends. I have some friends that make me laugh. I have some friends that make me better. I have some friends that make me angry, the way they’re angry when I see what they’re going through. And so, what the book of Proverbs says, choose your friends very carefully because we have a tendency to be like our friends. And if you have friends that are angry all the time, that never laugh, that are constantly complaining, that are constantly seeing how bad things are, then go get another friend. We had a psychologist who used to work with Key Life. She’s in heaven now, and I miss her a lot. She, we had a mutual friend who was very angry. In fact, he was a lawyer, and he took his anger to court on various occasions, and he expressed that anger all the time. And after years of friendship, she went to him and said, Bill, and that’s not his name, Bill, we can’t be friends anymore. And he said, why’s that? And she said, because you’re so angry, you make me angry. And I don’t like myself, when I’m angry all the time. I’m not sure that my psychologist friend understood or knew that she was saying exactly what God said in the Book of Proverbs. Be careful of the friends you choose. Your mother told you that. She was right. Be careful of the friends that you choose. Some of your friends make you better. Some of your friends make you worse. Some of them are neutral. But, be careful. That’s what the Book of Proverbs says. Now, let me introduce another subject, and maybe we won’t get much into it, but we’ll talk about it tomorrow. Be careful about words that divide. We’re still sort of talking about anger. Proverbs 18:19

A brother offended is harder to win than a strong city, and contentions are like the bars of a castle.

In other words, not only be careful of the friends you choose, and be careful of your own anger, be careful of the words that you speak. You’ve heard, and it’s been quoted forever, sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me. I don’t know who said that originally, but they were wrong. That’s silly. I can deal with sticks and stones. They do heal, but words sometimes wound so deeply that healing never takes place. Jerry Parries is one of the voices of Key Life and I have fairly recently sat together in this studio during a week of Key Life Broadcast. And we were talking about the power of confession. And Jerry pointed out that there are people whose parents said to them, you are good for nothing. You are not worth anything. I wish you had never been born. And those words, those words molded those children into the adult that they became. I have a friend who has a prison ministry, one time in a prison gathering, asked the prisoners, how many of you had a father or mother who said you’re going to end up in jail and he said every hand went up. So, you’ve got to be careful of friends, but you’ve got to be careful of the words you speak. I’m going to talk to you a little bit more about that tomorrow, but sometimes words are words that not only hurt and cause pain and increase anger, sometimes words spoken at the right time, in the right way, under the power of the Holy Spirit, sometimes those words change lives. Hey, you think about that. Amen.

Matthew Porter:
Choose your friends carefully. Well, that is certainly some practical wisdom. Thank you Steve. And for more practical wisdom from the Book of Proverbs, please join us again tomorrow. Hey, speaking of friends, we have a new one we’d love to introduce to you, Voddie Baucham. He’s an author and a charismatic and outspoken voice for God’s truth. We spoke with Voddie on Steve Brown Etc. about culture, politics, and the gospel in a post Christian world. And it was amazing. Take a listen to part of that conversation, then I’ll be back to tell you about a special free offer.

Voddie Baucham: America is rooted and grounded in really Biblical ideology, Biblical worldview, Biblical theology. We inherit the ideals and the foundational truths of the Reformation, and we’ve had a wonderful ride as a direct result of it. But now we’re sort of like a teenager who’s grown up and been blessed and been spoiled and decided that he can do better without all of those things that were given to him, and we’re running away from them as quickly as we can, only able to do so because of the benefits that have been provided. And so, we see that in American culture. We see American culture being free, being prosperous because of our foundations and running away from those things as fast as we possibly can. So, when we talk about being post Christian, it doesn’t mean that there’s no more Christianity left. It means that that Christianity that’s here has been abandoned, and it has also now begun to be vilified.

Steve Brown:
You know, the promises of post modernity or post Christian culture are really big. You know, you’re going to be free, you don’t need all this religious stuff. All it’s done is mess with your mind and mess with your life. And those who hold those views are judgmental and arrogant, and they think everybody’s wrong except them. And so, we’re going to do it a better way, but it’s not. Our suicide rate is going through the roof. Depression is at an all time high. We’re eating medications like it was candy. We’re seeing culture fall apart. We’re seeing the world fall apart. And academic institutions are in such trouble. Do you think that maybe there will be an attack of sanity sometime when our culture looks and says, My heavens, what have we done?

Voddie Baucham: I think one of the great blessings of America in particular is federalism. And the spiritual temperature is different in different parts of America. And I think that has slowed the decline. The other way I answer that question is, I think we’re seeing people wake up because the whole trans movement is a bridge too far. We’ve raced down this slippery slope for a long time. And now, people are being told that, you know, they have to use pronouns that make absolutely no sense, that they have to, say that men can menstruate, and so on and so forth. And people are looking at that and they’re finally saying, wait, What have we done? We’re taking little boys and little girls and we’re mutilating them. What have we done? So, I think there is a window right now because of that madness where people are at least recognizing that there’s a problem.

Steve Brown:
Are you hopeful?

Voddie Baucham: Yeah, I’m absolutely hopeful. I know that there’s hope because I’ve seen what God has done in history. There’s been ebbs and flows throughout history, and I have hope, number one, because there have been revivals, there have been great awakenings, but I also have hope because I recognize that there have been other cultures that have fallen. There have been other empires that have fallen, but the kingdom of God is undefeated. And I think one of the reasons many Americans are not hopeful is because they think America is the New Jerusalem, and it ain’t.

Matthew Porter:
You are going to love hearing the rest of that conversation. And you can get it on CD for free by calling us right now at 1-800-KEY-LIFE that’s 1-800-539-5433. You can also e-mail [email protected] to ask for that CD. If you’d like to mail your request, go to keylife.org/contact to find our mailing addresses. Again, just ask for your free copy of the CD featuring Voddie Baucham. Finally, if you value the work of Key Life, would you join us in that work through your financial support? Giving is easy. You can charge a gift on your credit card. You can include a gift in your envelope. Or now, you can give safely and securely through text. Just pick up your phone and text Key Life to 28950 again that’s Key Life, one word, two words. It doesn’t matter. Just text that to 28950. Key Life is a member of ECFA in the States and CCCC in Canada. And we are a listener supported production of Key Life Network.