Follow Him: A Come, Follow Me Podcast - "Why does it matter who my friends are?" • followHIM Favorites • Oct. 31 - Nov. 6

Episode Date: October 27, 2022

Hank Smith and John Bytheway answer a question from this week's Come, Follow Me study.Show Notes (English, French, Spanish, Portuguese): https://followhim.co/old-testament/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/followhimpodcastInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/followhimpodcastYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/FollowHimOfficialChannelThanks to the followHIM team:Steve & Shannon Sorensen: Executive Producers, SponsorsDavid & Verla Sorensen: SponsorsDr. Hank Smith: Co-hostJohn Bytheway: Co-hostDavid Perry: ProducerKyle Nelson: Marketing, SponsorLisa Spice: Client Relations, Editor, Show NotesJamie Neilson: Social Media, Graphic DesignWill Stoughton: Video EditorKrystal Roberts: Translation Team, English & French Transcripts, WebsiteAriel Cuadra: Spanish TranscriptsIgor Willians: Portuguese Transcripts"Let Zion in Her Beauty Rise" by Marshall McDonaldhttps://www.marshallmcdonaldmusic.com/products/let-zion-in-her-beauty-rise-piano

Hello everyone, welcome to another Follow Him Favorites. My name is Hank Smith. I'm here with the just practically perfect in every way, John, by the way. Please stop that. If you've been following Follow Him Favorites this year, we take a single question from each week's lesson and talk about it. This week we're in the book of Daniel. And so John, I thought of a question right when I thought of Daniel. He has three friends in Ananiya, Mishayel and Azaraya, or their Babylonian names, Shadrach, Mishak and Abednego. He has three really good friends, and he's a good friend to them. So my automatic question was, do friends matter? Do the people that I hang out with, do the people that I spend my time with, does it matter? What would you say to someone who is a little bit younger who says, come on, it doesn't matter who I hang out with, so what if they don't believe what I believe or they're trying to get

me to do bad things? They're my friends. What would you say? Oh, matters a lot. When I first got my driver's license, my friends taught me this. You drive along. We were walking home from Moscow and driving along the railroad, rolled down the window,

hey, you want a ride and they'd say, yeah, and we'd say, call your mom, and drive off, right? What? What? I've always felt like the analogy of a driver and passengers is really good for friendship. If you get in somebody else's car, you're going where they're going.

And sometimes it's like that with friends. You're either an influencer or you just get influenced. And if you're in the back seat, you don't have a lot of say. And it's really important to surround yourself with friends who are going where you're going. That's just so important. And I love the story that we all know of. Men brought in a bed, a man who was taken with the palsy. It's in two or three of the Gospels.

I know it's in Luke 5 and it doesn't say much about the friends. After that point, but here are friends who are determined to take this man to Christ, literally, take him to Christ. And when the room is so full of people, they can't do it, they get this idea. I know. Let's go up on the roof, make a hole in the roof, and lower him through the ceiling. We are getting him in. You can imagine the friend at that point, I think I feel better, but they do that because they're so determined to get him An audience with the savior which they do and this amazing thing happens go read the whole thing and look five But you're going where your friends are going and so that's why it is so important

Hank do you remember sister Susan Tanner? I do she had this great talk about the survey of the young women in the church. And what are some of the reasons you go to seminary friends? What are some of the reasons you don't go friends? What do you think about during the day friends? If they're ever time when you don't go to young wounds, why is that? No friends? It was for every answer was about friends. And that's why it's so important. I'll tell you funny story. Years ago, the new era magazine called me and they said, I was so flattered at first, they said they were doing an issue about friendship. And they said, we just have this article we want you to write and we just thought of you

or write off. And the title would be, why don't I have any friends? And you just came to mind, you are the first one. Thank you so much. So they did publish it. I did write it, but they changed the title. I have no friends by John, by the way, you can go read that sad story on your gospel library app if you want. But I think the reason friends are so important is you're going where they're going. And Daniel had good friends. And that's what we learned from this chapter. Yep. Years ago, I did a talk on CD called I Love My Friends.

And I, because I'd heard that phrase so much for my seminary students, I liked my family. But I love my friends. And I thought, I'm going to use that. Do you really love your friends? Because what do good friends do? You've told me this before, John. A good friend is someone who will help you live the gospel. And I noticed in these chapters of Daniel that they do things as a group that so often when they're around each other, it's we are not going to do this. We are not going to do that. For example, when they want them to break their word of wisdom, it says they decided they would not do it together. And then when King Nebuchadnezzar is going to throw the three into the fiery furnace, they say, our God whom we serve will deliver us

out of thy hand. But if not, we will not serve thy gods. There's weas and usses and days and these. There's not a lot of eyes and hymns. They do things as a group. There's a strength in that. It's easier to live the gospel when you've got three or four people around you who are also living the gospel, who will sometimes even speak up for you. If you're a party and someone says,

here's some alcohol and your friend steps between you and the alcohol and says, oh, I'm so sorry, we don't drink. We don't do that. Yeah, it's not I don't do that. What about you, friend? I've known since second grade. Do you drink? No, we don't drink. We don't do that. Yeah, it's not I don't do that. What about you, friend? I've known since second grade. Do you drink? No, we don't drink. I think it's absolutely crucial to say, if you truly love your friends, do you help them live the gospel and do your friends help you live the gospel? It is so critical. I remember once hearing President Hinkley say,

remember President Hinkley John that hand going up and down, he's speaking to seminary teachers, he said, most of all, tell them to choose good friends. I thought he'd say, most of all, tell them to choose to go to the temple or most of all, tell them to choose to read their scriptures. But he didn't. He said, most of all, tell them to choose good friends. And I hope that message is coming through loud and clear on this little follow him favorites that who you choose as your friends matters more than you can possibly imagine to your future. I think that's why we love the book of

Daniel and I hope young people will too because these are young people. These are young men that help each other and I don't want to take credit for a statement that I didn't make but I've repeated a lot. It was elder Robert Dehails who said, a true friend makes it easier to live the gospel of Jesus Christ by being around him or her. A friend will never ask you to choose between their way and the Lord's way. And I just love that. A true friend makes it easier to live the gospel, not harder, makes it easier. Daniel and his friends, they had strengthened numbers because they were good influence on each other. Love it. And if you're sitting here going, well, my friends don't make it easier for me to live the gospel.

We're not condemning them. We're not saying, well, you can never speak to them again, or you have to get rid of them entirely, or they're going to outer darkness. That's not what we're saying at all. But if you're in a situation where your friends make it harder for you to live the gospel, I would say you've got to get out of that situation and you've got to find a different group of friends who are going to make it easier for you to live the gospel. It's an absolute must that you've got to decide that maybe they're not bad people, but it's not a good situation for you. And you're going to have to change your situation in order to have a better future, the future that you want, the future that you deserve. Love it. There's a proverb we talked about, Proverbs. He who walketh with wise men shall be wise,

but a companion of fools will be destroyed. I heard somebody say once that thought it was a fascinating statement, you're the average of the five people you spend the most time with. I mean, two on that one for a while. The movies you watch, the music you listen to, the things that you do, and that's why I like hanging out with you, Hank. Yeah. That's why I like chatting with you. I always leave saying, you know what, I'm going to live the gospel.

John makes it easy to live the gospel. Right, back at you. Thank you for joining us on Follow Him Favorites. We hope you'll join us next week. But find us on our full podcast this week. We're in the book of Daniel with Dr. Lillie Anderson. She does some great things with this chapter. You're not going to want to miss. And then come back here next week and join us

for another Follow Him Favorites. Thank you.