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.
