https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZ3p-pXLZXQ
Two BIG Reasons to
Separate from Worldly People
I want to talk
about a topic that is not popular and it's the topic of staying separate from people
who are worldly. Now we all know that as disciples of Jesus we are in the world
but not of the world, which means that we will have jobs that are in the world,
we will be going to grocery markets in the world, we're rubbing shoulders with
people in the world, but we understand the concept of being in the world but
not of it, not being like those people. So quite likely you live with people
that are not Christians or some people in your family are not dedicated to the
Lord, there's people at your school that are not dedicated to the Lord, your
workplace, all those things we understand. But there are a lot of times where
we need to separate from someone, someone maybe in our family or a friend that
we know is not godly and they don't belong in our life, maybe they have
addictions or maybe they're causing us to stumble and the Lord has given us the
possibility to separate from them. But because we love them and they've been a
friend or a family member for a long time we continue to keep them in our lives
even though they're causing harm to us spiritually.
Now I want to talk
about a couple different problems. One problem is losing your own soul. We want
to make sure that we ourselves are not stumbling and often we need to separate ourselves
from people that are ungodly to preserve our own soul so that we can be
edified. This is one reason that I had to leave many people in my family and
friends and church. The first reason I did it was because I knew Jesus was
calling me out of religion, He was calling me out of sin. But a second big
reason that I chose to stay away from people in church was a lot of them were
doing things that were very promiscuous. They would go out on the lake, they
would be half naked and they really enjoyed that kind of party life but being a
Christian. I got to the point where I didn't want to be lusting, I didn't want
to be seeing half naked women. I wanted to keep my eyes pure, I wanted to keep
unstained from the world.
Although Jesus was
calling me out of church and out of these things, I knew that the reason for me
besides the fact that they were teaching false doctrine in church and all of
that stuff was I wanted to keep myself unstained from the world. If I were
around half naked women out on the lake with my friends, then I would be
stumbling right back into lust and into sin. You don't want that for your soul,
you don't want these demons to be pulling you to hell and saying, well you
can't stop hanging out with your friends and with these girls and having fun at
the lake. No, you need to make the decision to keep yourself separate from
these people if they are destroying your soul. You need to put your priority in
the kingdom of God with Jesus and staying holy and pure. So that's the first
thing.
The second thing
is if you have children, you need to really be watching out for their souls as
well. At this point of my life, I have four children between the ages of almost
ten years old and four. And I have grown in my maturity in the Lord. I'm not
going to stumble in some of the ways that I used to because i've been
practicing righteousness, i've been disciplining myself. And in many ways, i've
changed quite dramatically from who I was when I was a newborn in Christ. I
have developed to where I know I can be around certain people without
stumbling. However, even though I am spiritually mature, my children are not. They're
not spiritually mature or physically mature. And if you as a parent start
saying, “well, we can associate with these people even though they're in this
sin because we're not going to do that.” Well maybe you won't because you're
mature, but your children are going to see this dualistic mind in you. They're
going to see that, well, mom and dad, they preach righteousness, they choose
not to be in church, but our grandma and dad's friends, they all hang out in
church, they all go out on the boat, and they all do these certain things and
they get drunk once in a while or they have fun. And so they're going to see
these two different mindsets. This mindset of righteousness, but also this
mindset of worldliness. And your children who do not have the same dedication
to Jesus or the same spiritual depth as you do, will be deceived. Even though
you think that you're just being a light to your father-in-law or a light to
your mother-in-law or a light to your friend, You're going to end up losing
your family, you know, your children. Because they're going to see that
dissonance. So this is really important, guys, that we make sure that we keep
unstained from the world, that we teach our children to stay separate, and that
we keep separate from ungodly people.
That doesn't mean
we go out of the world, we will always be in the world, but we need to make
sure that we are not double-minded, but that in everything that we are holy and
pure, keeping ourselves unstained, but also doing our best job to keep our
children unstained from the world. So are we separate? Are we separate from
hypocrisy, separate from dead religion, separate from all these things in the
world that are truly bringing people to hell? Or have we mingled with people in
the world, mingled with sin and with very sinful people that will end up
bringing our own souls to hell? Or maybe if we're mature enough and they're not
bringing us to hell, maybe they are destroying your family. Maybe your wife is
being deceived by this, or your children, because they are not spiritually mature.
Think about this, guys, because you want your children, your offspring, to also
be entering into the Kingdom of God. If Satan can't get you, he will get your
children. So think about how you will strengthen your household, that you will
keep your entire family holy and pure for Jesus, that you may enter into His
Kingdom. May the grace of Jesus be with you.
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