Preview: This lesson focuses on how positive and negative influences can affect your life in different ways
Scripture Reading: Esther 5:9-14.
Memory Verse: I Corinthians 15:33.
1. Explain how Haman’s counsel negatively influenced him in the foregoing scriptures.
Note: Haman was already evil on his own, but he also surrounded himself with evil enablers who put sinister ideas in his head and encouraged his arrogance.
2. Do people have the ability to influence your decisions? Who should we avoid? Proverbs 16:29, Proverbs 27:17.
3. Are we supposed to associate with wicked people? Psalm 26:4-5, I Corinthians 5:11-12, Psalm 14:6-7.
4. How does David describe people that avoid wicked company? Psalm 1:1-3.
5. Are we told to have advisers in our lives? Why? Proverbs 15:22, Proverbs 11:14.
6. What happens to those who associate with wise people? Proverbs 13:20.
7. What is the Lord’s stance on gossip? Proverbs 17:9, Psalm 101:5-6, Proverbs 20:19.
8. What are the people who side with the wicked against the righteous? Proverbs 17:15.
9. Should we have many friends or few? Proverbs 18:24.
10. What should we be doing for our friends? I Thessalonians 5:11.
11. What are we told to do when we find ourselves starting to make bad decisions? Matthew 5:29-30.
Note: This obviously does not mean that Jesus is advising people to actually mutilate themselves, but it does mean that you are meant to cut out the thing that is causing you to commit sin. This means that you need to be aware of the negative influences in your life and actively avoid them.
12. How are we called to defeat negative influences in our lives? Romans 12:21.