Beware of Peer Pressure

Pastor S. A. Arekete

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 Text: Pro 1:8-16
• 8. My son, hear the instruction of thy father, and forsake not the
law of thy mother:
• 9. For they shall be an ornament of grace unto thy head, and
chains about thy neck.
• 10. My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not.
• 11. If they say, Come with us, let us lay wait for blood, let us lurk
privily for the innocent without cause:
• 12. Let us swallow them up alive as the grave; and whole, as
those that go down into the pit:

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 Text: Pro 1:8-16
• 13. We shall find all precious substance, we shall fill our houses
with spoil:
• 14. Cast in thy lot among us; let us all have one purse:
• 15. My son, walk not thou in the way with them; refrain thy foot
from their path:
• 16. For their feet run to evil, and make haste to shed blood.

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 Text: Pro 1:8-16
• 1Co 15:33-34
• 33. Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good
manners.
• 34. Awake to righteousness, and sin not; for some have not the
knowledge of God: I speak this to your shame.

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 Introduction
• Peer pressure poses a lot of danger to every member of the
family: father, mother, boys and girls.
• The tendency to want to belong is extremely dangerous.
• A boy who came from the North was rusticated for 1 session
from our Department for using drugs.
• He went to recovery of destiny and got reinstated after about 12
months; when he came back, he was found abusing substances,
again with two other friends of his whole he can copted.
• He was completely expelled while his friends were rusticated.

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 Introduction..
• Students in secondary schools and even primary schools have
started using drugs and abusing the opposite sex because of
peer pressure.
• Some students don’t read, but they want to pass exams.
• Some don’t listen in class, the lecturer is in front, teaching, they
would stay at the back of the class talking to themselves.

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 What is Peer Pressure?
• Peer pressure is defined as influence by one's peers, especially to
conform.
• Keeping up with the Joneses is an idiom referring to the
comparison to one's neighbour as a benchmark for social class
or the accumulation of material goods.

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 Example of Peer Pressures
• I learnt that in some schools those days, during visiting days or at
the end of the session, students insist that their parents should
not come for them except with some particular type of cars; if
you don’t ride a car that meets the standard, don’t come.
• We may have a set of students who constitute themselves as
nuisance in class, noise makers, bullies, disrespectful to teachers.
• Some wives drive their husbands beyond their limits because
they must conform to some class, they must belong.
• If you don’t build in Lekki you have not built a house!

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 Example of Peer Pressures
• “My colleague are riding jeeps and I must ride one!”
• It is not bad to ride jeep but can you afford it? Can you maintain
it?
• To tell you the truth, many evils in the society today are due to
peer pressure.
• Have you seen the recent trends in marriage ceremonies? We
don’t have Christian marriage ceremonies again! Brothers and
sisters even outdo unbelievers! What do you expect when you
hire worldly DJs for your marriage reception!

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 How we overcome peer pressure?
1. Dare to be positively different
• Don’t do it because others are doing it. Do it because it is right.
• Daniel dared to be different even where there was a liberty to be
gluttonous!
• Dan 1:8
• 8. But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile
himself with the portion of the king's meat, nor with the wine
which he drank: therefore he requested of the prince of the
eunuchs that he might not defile himself.

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 How we overcome peer pressure?..
2. Resist enticement
• Ajegbodo, ma nwa eni kunra no.
• The devil is a great evangelist.
• Don’t be wooed.
• From night parties to clubbing, hanging out with friends, you can be
introduced to alcohol, drugs or sex.
• Pro 1:10 My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not.
• Pro 1:14-15
• 14. Cast in thy lot among us; let us all have one purse:
• 15. My son, walk not thou in the way with them; refrain thy foot from their
path:

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 How we overcome peer pressure?..
2. Resist enticement..
• Psa 1:1-3
• 1. Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the
ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the
seat of the scornful.
• 2. But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth
he meditate day and night.
• 3. And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that
bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not
wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.

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 How we overcome peer pressure?..
3. Rebuke and expose evil
• Don’t say if you are not doing it, you are Ok. Persuade others not
to do it and where necessary, expose them.
• It you are covering up for them, you are a partaker of their evil
ways.
• Some will allow their friends to use their apartments for sexual
immorality. You are a partaker of their sins.
• Rom 1:32 Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which
commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same,
but have pleasure in them that do them.

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 How we overcome peer pressure?..
3. Rebuke and expose evil
• Eph 5:11-13
• 11. And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of
darkness, but rather reprove them.
• 12. For it is a shame even to speak of those things which are
done of them in secret.
• 13. But all things that are reproved are made manifest by the
light: for whatsoever doth make manifest is light.

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 How we overcome peer pressure?..
4. Be vigilant
• For a number of people, the first time they used drugs, they
were deceived that it wasn’t harmful.
• The first time they smoked, they were told it wasn’t bad.
• The day they lost their virginity, they were tricked into it.
• The first time they took bribe, they were told that a little tip
wasn’t bad after all.
• That little thing that appears harmless can become what you
would never be able to overcome or control.

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 How we overcome peer pressure?..
4. Be vigilant
• 1Pe 5:8-9
• 8. Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring
lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:
• 9. Whom resist stedfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions
are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world.
• Eph 5:17-18
• 17. Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of
the Lord is.
• 18. And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with
the Spirit;
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 How we overcome peer pressure?..
5. Be moderate and contented
• Php 4:5. Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord
is at hand.
• 1Ti 6:6. But godliness with contentment is great gain.
• 7. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we
can carry nothing out.

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 How we overcome peer pressure?..
6. Put God at the centre of your life
• Joh 4:31-33
• 31. In the mean while his disciples prayed him, saying, Master,
eat.
• 32. But he said unto them, I have meat to eat that ye know not
of.
• 33. Therefore said the disciples one to another, Hath any man
brought him ought to eat?

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 How we overcome peer pressure?..
6. Put God at the centre of your life..
• Heb 10:5-7
• 5. Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice
and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared
me:
• 6. In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no
pleasure.
• 7. Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written
of me,) to do thy will, O God.

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 How we overcome peer pressure?..
7. Don’t say nobody is watching you, God is watching!
• Under pressure, Joseph knows he cannot misbehave.
• Gen 39:9. There is none greater in this house than I; neither
hath he kept back any thing from me but thee, because thou art
his wife: how then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against
God?

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 The Dangers of Peer Pressure
1. Pleasing men and displeasing God
2. Loss of speed in the journey of life (example, Ambassador son,
Sogo, Best graduating student of Bells University about 5 years
ago).
3. Partial or total derailment of destiny.
4. Loss of relevance and position (remember Judas).
• Act 1:20. For it is written in the book of Psalms, Let his habitation be
desolate, and let no man dwell therein: and his bishoprick let another
take.

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 Serious Warnings
• Don’t get into drugs and alcohol.
• Don’t get into sexual immorality within or after marriage.
• Don’t get into cult groups.

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 Finally
• Rom 12:1. I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of
God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy,
acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.
• Rom 12:2. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye
transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove
what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

• 1Co 6:12. All things are lawful unto me, but all things are not
expedient: all things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought
under the power of any.
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 Finally..
• 1Ti 4:12
• 12. Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an example of
the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in
faith, in purity.

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 Prayer
• Father, please make me a true ambassador for you and let me
never be brought under the control of peer pressure.
• Father, give me dominion over my appetite and tastes
• Father, make me a standard bearer and a pacesetter.

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