Not Everyone Deserves To Be Close To You

[Music] when someone comes to know the saving grace of jesus christ a new life emerges replacing the old one and all at once this new believer experiences a joy and a hope that wasn't there before but here's the thing if you don't surround yourself with people who encourage you in your journey of faith then the bible says in first corinthians 15 33. do not be deceived evil company corrupts good habits a believer who has walked with god for a while can become discouraged and lose hope when they encounter people in their life who are not living up to the faith they proclaimed to have found if a person's relationship with christ is not grounded in who he is and what he has done then that person is more likely to be swayed by what other believers do what other people say as christians who are part of the body of christ it's our job to secure our faith in god and in his word it's our duty to guard ourselves and protect our faith by examining the relationships we have are they helpful or are they hurtful are they supporting you to go forward or are they pushing you backwards now what i want us to specifically look at are the three types of toxic people to avoid when living out our daily walk with christ the first person to avoid is the discourager we all know this person this is the person who has something negative to say about every situation they are always looking at the glasses half empty instead of looking at the positive side of things imagine this scenario with me for a minute a brand new believer has an excitement for church and being part of what god is doing she attends every single thing that the church has to offer if the doors are open she's there she sits down next to someone that she knows is a christian and is excited to get to know her however this person immediately starts going in on how long this sermon usually lasts and how there just aren't enough compelling ministries in the church the new believer walks away with a stunned look trying to understand why someone wouldn't have the same joy and hope that she is found she tries a few more times to give this person a chance thinking that maybe she just had a bad day but every time she walks away feeling the weight of negativity her new friend always seems to find something wrong with everything in the church you need to remember don't be deceived evil company corrupts good habits the way others talk and look at life can have a major impact on us rather than focusing on the ones that discourage look for people who motivate you and spur you on as hebrews 10 24 says and let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works the bible is telling us that we need to have people that will encourage us in our walk with the lord and constantly uplift us as opposed to discouragers the second person to avoid is what i'd like to call the distractor these are people who distract you from your calling and from accomplishing the work of the lord people who don't have their sights set on the will of god but on themselves their priorities focus on self rather than service if you spend large amounts of time with these types of people then you will lose sight of the calling that god has planted within you for example a believer who wants to pursue a closer walk with the lord spends time meditating on god's word they spend time in their prayer closet and surround themselves with godly people and when you do this you will always have people that will say comments like he's always at church or that church is his life instead of pushing you to continue they try to convince you to go out or to do something that doesn't focus on the lord but on fleshly desires instead while we should still have relationships with people that are not saved because we can be the light in a dark world our closest friends should be those who share similar desires about god's will and calling look at the believers in acts 2 they were so passionate about the lord that they met together daily verse 42 says all the believers devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and to fellowship and to sharing in meals including the lord's supper and to prayer meeting together and pursuing christ was their desire at the end of the chapter we see that god was adding to their numbers daily when it came to the amount of people who were being saved the third type of person to avoid is the person who is the destroyer it may not be a physical destruction they are after but it will be a destruction of your peace and joy even your faith these are probably the most important people to avoid because they can be disguised in sheep's clothing as matthew 7 15 states but inwardly they are ravenous wolves these people even know scripture sometimes remember that when the devil tempted jesus in matthew 4 he used scripture every time so these people will often know the word and seem like christians but when you really listen to them they are far from god our enemy the devil wants to destroy the peace and joy god has given us and he can even use others to do it consider this scenario a woman joins a ministry in her church to try and reach the lost community there are those around her who don't agree with the ministry and look for ways to convince others in the church including this woman why the ministry is not needed they speak well and have a reputation of being people who have invested a lot in the church and they will most likely have been members for a long time now even though they proclaim christianity with their mouths their hearts proclaim something else these types of people are out to destroy anything that brings others peace and joy and so you and i should pray for discernment so we can identify these types of people pray for their deliverance but still keep them at a distance so that they don't have any effect over us it's so vital to your relationship with christ to make sure you are surrounded by people who encourage you who participate in doing the lord's work and building up the body of christ rather than tearing it down it doesn't matter if you're a new believer or have been a believer for many years the enemy will use anyone he can to distract you from following the lord so be cautious and guard your heart from these types of people pray and ask god to put people in your life to edify your walk with him [Music] learn to let go holding on to something that god is saying has come to an end is painful and that process of holding on will hurt you and if it doesn't hurt you then it will plant seeds seeds of bitterness seeds of resentment and unforgiveness that's what will begin to build up in your heart that's how satan wants you to react how could they do this to me after all i did for them how could they just treat me like that you see it's thinking like that that'll cause you to become disheartened you induce yourself into a state of suffering when instead you just need to let them go respectfully quietly gracefully let them go don't waste time fighting about it don't argue about it god brought them he'll bring someone else and when you find yourself in a position where you need the grace to accept that someone has served their purpose pray that the lord will be your comfort as he guides you into the next chapter we don't always know what's best for us it can be hard to see reality clearly when our emotions get in the way that's why we need to pray for the grace to be of a clear mind we will meet a lot of people over our lifetime without a doubt there will be many that we will grow fond of some that we'll be sad to let go of others not so much but we have to trust that god knows what he's doing he knows what will help us he knows what will harm us and in the grand view of eternity in the grand scheme of our beginning and our end he knows it all what is needed to develop our character who is needed to take us to the next level and also who should be removed so that we can be free to elevate we don't always have control over the people who influence our lives we can't always beg them to stay or force them to leave but what we can control is our attitude the bible says as much as it depends on you live peaceably with all living peaceably means letting go of anger it means letting go of malice it means letting go of regret it means letting go of what could have been and looking forward to what's ahead god has so many relationships in store for you that you might not even know about yet don't miss out on the opportunities he's preparing for you because you're too focused on preserving something that was never going to last and don't try to bury your emotions but bring them to god in prayer he knows you're hurt he knows your pain jesus himself was betrayed by the ones he loved he understands your reluctance but he will also give you the strength to do the hard things you need to do pray for wisdom as well it can be hard to determine when to stay and when to let go but at some point it becomes clear when it's not meant to be if a relationship no longer glorifies god but instead glorifies itself it's time to move on it's time to look forward so if god removed them from your life don't be afraid to let them go [Music] you

Channel: Grace For Purpose

Views: 1,454,945

Rating: 4.9479084 out of 5

Keywords: Christian, Motivation

Id: agAmHLnOhjo

Length: 11min 58sec (718 seconds)

Published: Sat Oct 17 2020