Influences

God is protective, not punitive, not, you can list a thousand other words. He’s protective. It’d be like a parent that says, you know, don’t go across in that street and a young child makes a break for it and they don’t get hit, but there’s a scary moment. Maybe a car sees him at the last moment, stops, and there’s this real, I mean, your heart stops as a parent in moment. Like that, right?

And so why don’t you just hug your baby and everything’s good? Why is there also a very corrective moment if you’re a parent like God is? That is why this is important. Okay, so that’s kind of the heart and spirit of my words today. Like a good parent, he knows, he knows there are risks out there.

Okay, and often he warns his children of them and how to avoid them. That’s really the, that’s really the Bible. It’s saying it’s not, you know, I thought of the words a lot of you would date me for this, but Hill Street blues. Remember that epic crime show, right? Never mind, but there’s this the watch commander gathers a shift of officers about go out on the beat and he gives them details of what’s gonna happen and things that are developing in different precincts around the city and then he stops at the end when they’re all gathering up their stuff and about to head to squad cars and he goes, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, be careful out there.

That’s kind of God’s voice to us. He knows there’s stuff out there. So he gives warnings as a protective parent should give, right? You know, you’re with me. Do you know any parent that doesn’t?

Probably and you’re not gonna try to emulate them, are you? No, okay, so here’s the deal. He gives word warnings, let’s call them, to caution those he loves from the dangers outside. These are every one of them. I’m just gonna click through them like that, but every one of them are verbs, which means these are actions we can and must take, okay?

So when you hear word verb, just ignore your grammar teacher ’cause you’re like me, you’re like, what is that? I mean, these are actions, okay? And there’s a list of them. The first is the core one. Proverbs four says verse 23, guard your heart.

Would you put down the word right now in your notes, guard? I told you these are word warnings. Guard your heart. Jesus walked with a group of guys and one of them stand out guy was Peter, remember? And Peter at the end of his second letter says in second Peter chapter three, verses 17 and 18.

Two key words, verse 17, guard your heart. Verse 18, grow your heart. And he’s done. He goes home to be with Jesus. So guard your heart, that’s the first.

The second is, find and take the way of escape when temptation comes. Would you write down, find and take the escape. And he provides that escape per his promise in 1 Corinthians 10 verse 13. There is no temptation that has overtaken you or me, but what is common to man? In other words, you’re not going through something special.

There’s lots of other people that have gone through it. God is faithful when you go through that, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, providing you a way of escape so that you may be able to survive it or endure it. 1 Corinthians 10 verse 13. So guard, find and take the escape. Here’s a third.

Resist the tempter. Not just the temptation. James four seven says, submit there for to God, resist the devil. He’s the tempter and he will flee from you. 1 Peter five verse nine says, resist Satan firm in your faith.

So two of the inner circle with Jesus say things like resist the tempter himself. Don’t play nice with him. Here’s another word, flee youthful love. He says, I almost didn’t say youthful because sometimes we go, yeah, that’s really an issue for the teenagers of our world today. And it is, but it doesn’t go away when you become a adult teenager.

That’s why Paul said in to Timothy, hey, last couple of paragraphs that I got to share with you. Chapter two verse 22 of his second and final letter, Paul said, flee youthful lusts. And pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace with those who call upon the Lord from a pure heart. So he’s saying, don’t be nice when you’re feeling the heat. Run.

That’s what flee means. Okay, here’s one more. Avoid the trap of riches. Circle, put down the word avoid. So I’ve got down guard your heart or guard, find and take the way of escape.

Resist, flee and avoid the trap of riches. I won’t quote the whole section, but first Timothy chapter six is your go to. It’s your manual that says there are real temptations associated with risk that can lead to the ruin of a person. All right. So that’s the list and it’s very partial list of risk that can ruin people and it’s long.

There’s a lot of them. God’s clear counsel, when it comes to managing the risks that we face in this world is captured in those words, guard, escape, resist, flee and avoid. So let me draw out a couple of principles right away, okay? Clear facts. We aren’t just helpful.

Number one, we are not just helpless rather, targets of temptation. Take that in. You’re gonna leave here in half hour, 40 minutes. Unless I really get rolling. All right, so you’re gonna leave so am I and we don’t have to just go outside and go, well, you know, it’s easy pickings.

You know, another one bites the dust. No, we aren’t just helpless targets of temptation. Those words prove positive. There’s something we can do. Secondly, we aren’t hardwired to fail or give in to temptation.

You might be more practiced at that than the next person. You have a history of doing that, but that doesn’t mean you’re hardwired, aren’t you? I’m helpless. I don’t know what I can do. It’s gonna happen, right?

No, no, no. And that kind of points to the obvious. We mustn’t, number three, we must not play nice when it comes to temptation. Don’t play nice. Don’t just go here, stay away from me.

Your cell phone’s causing you temptation. Burn it. No, don’t, that would pollute the air. Throw it in water and forget it for like ever. You’re not gonna do that ’cause that’s a thousand dollar loss, right?

You know what I’m talking about. So there’s one more temptation though. That is both big and insidious. That means so big, you oughta see it, but most of us don’t. It’s so insidious that most people in fact are exposed to this temptation daily.

In some cases, constantly. It’s so menacing and powerful in its infection of people that it often goes actually wholly unknown. People find themselves saying, what happened here? Maybe of themselves. I just crashed and burned.

How did I get here? You thought like that? You thought about that regarding someone you love? How did they get there? It’s like deadly carbon monoxide.

I’m not telling you what it is just yet. You need one of those carbon monoxide things in your home because it’s an odorless gas. You don’t see it, you don’t smell it. You just die from it. I wanna know what that is.

I know, I wanna be aware of that if somebody wants to tell me about it. So it will kill you by stealth and that’s the scary part. So what is it already? People. People.

Their influence and impact can cause you and I to do things that we never imagined ourselves doing. Things we would otherwise find very objectionable. They are repulsive to us in a normal frame of mind. But if it’s super subtle, you wouldn’t be the first that found yourself accepting them as okay and in some cases even embracing them as good. You with me?

There’s a psychological theory that’s gained traction in our world today. It’s called social or behavioral contagion. I’m gonna quote one sentence that describes it. Now there’s a lot of examples I could give you. I mean, people would say, if you ask a guy with all kinds of tats, why so many and what was your choice behind those tattoos or those piercings?

Now some are gonna go, no, I’m purely, I’m completely and totally, it’s my idea. Okay, really? How come I see that tattoo on almost every guy playing the NBA today? You know, that kind of thing. So somewhere in all of this, there’s the influence.

You saw it on somebody else and thought that’s cool. I’m not picking on tattoos or piercings or anything, not all of them that way. When I was a kid, again, this will date me, I absolutely had to have elephant bell bottom jeans. Raise your hand if you remember those bad boys, okay? All right.

I know today is straight jeans, right? And by the way, today there’s pressure on youth pastors to wear really straight jeans and roll up the cuffs. Check it out, except for, we got a superstar youth pastor who doesn’t do dumb things. I do things like that. But anyway, right?

So he’s not that kind of guy. But here’s the deal. Those elephant bells, I still remember the Fred Meyer in Kaiser, Oregon, where I threw a fit because I finally talked my mother into taking me there as a high school student. We get there and they don’t have my size. And then the lady, the clerk comes over with the nerve to say, you know, sir, well, young man, we have your size.

They’re just not an elephant bells. And I went like, by the way, for you that don’t go that far back, they’re pretty straight all the way down to maybe your calf. And then they’re about three times the size of your shoe when you get down to the bottom. What’s not cool about that? They’re in some museum of geeks today.

Is where they put stuff like that. So you know what else? Not everything you do is not everything that’s legal is a good idea. Have you found that to be true? There’s people smoking pot today and they’re like, well, it’s legal.

Is that the only level you live at? Really? By the way, I don’t want to just pick on youth pastors. There’s one more piece. Here.

I hope this is not lost on camera, but I’m going to pull out a couple of these bad boys. I don’t know if you can catch all of this. But these are actually really cool shoes. They’re from a sports maker, a very large one in Beaverton. Puma.

No, I’m just kidding you. So my son used to work for the Trailblazers. He was a team attendant. For like six years. And part of that was he rose up the ranks.

There’s really a ranks and he became the guy that the top shot top spot was he got to be the visiting team locker room. So eight hours a day was his job around all these stars. And they would come there and routinely at the end of the game, they would just discard clothes sometimes after one game, especially if they lost. They just threw it. Well, this happened to be one of those.

And by the way, these are the smallest ones. These are the man looks at Trevor. He was a guy that was nicknamed. That man can jump out of the building. So Shannon Brown actually was his name and he was they lost or whatever.

And he looks at Trevor and says, you know, anybody has or Trevor said, sir, what are you? What are you going to do? Don’t forget your shoes. He goes, no, I don’t want anybody with size 13. Trevor’s like, my dad.

He goes, I’ll give him to him. Give him to him. They’re worthless or something. I forget what he said. I have some that are size 18, Chev bought all brought.

Sir Jabaka. I think they’re too. They’re like, this is his shoe. That’s one. Anyway, it’s kind of crazy.

But here’s the funny part. There’s a lot of senior pastors today. Lead teaching pastors. A lot of them that are on live stream today. And this is their signature mark.

I almost wore these bad boys this morning and came out here and kicks. They’re called kicks in case you don’t know. And walked out here like with the biggest swag in the world, right? But I’m going to restrain myself and put them back down here. I was in a line at Chipotle the day after Trevor gave me those and I was just wearing them.

It was at lunch time and there’s an open campus from a high school nearby. And a bunch of high school kids came in. They’re behind me. And I am walking like I just got off the NBA court, right? And these boys are looking at me and not even holding back.

They’re like, oh my gosh, look at those. Oh, who is he anyway? Is that a great question? Anyway, it’s there’s so many many things like that that people do. Not because they jinnied up the idea, but because they saw somebody else do it.

They were inspired by somebody else enticed whatever word you want. But in the end, they’re wearing those kinds of shoes. They’re doing that to their hair. They’ve got bell bottom, you know, elephant bells. The list goes on and on.

To be fair, let me just add this and then we’ll jump in to some other scriptures. People can influence our lives for the good as well, can’t they? I mean, isn’t that what coaching is? Isn’t that the stuff of mentoring or here’s one, making disciples? How else do you explain Jesus’ two words repeated ready?

72 times in the gospels. Follow me. Paul caught on Philippians 4. He says, “The things you’ve heard and seen and observed in me, practice those things in the God of peace will be with you.” So it’s not all negative here.

But wisdom demands that we acknowledge really the dark side potential of people’s influences on our lives in a kind of an emphasized way. And that’s what we’re going to do the last few minutes. If the Apostle Paul were here, I think he would put volume to these words as you turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 15. Would you do that real quick? 1 Corinthians 15.

When you get to verse 33, just look up at me real quick because I want you to see and then hear these words, okay? We use some of you almost there. All right, let’s give it a shot here, right? 1 Corinthians 15 verse 33. The Apostle Paul, “Do not be deceived.

Bad company corrupts good morals.” Why am I shouting? ‘Cause he shouted. Why would I say that? How can I know that?

What is it that stirs in those words? It’s something that I’m capable of doing. I’m capable of being. What’s that? Deceived.

Do you know what deceived means? It means kidding yourself into thinking that a bad influence won’t impact you. It’s playing with, it’s dancing with the devil. It’s going, you know what? It’s for weak people, pastor.

Okay. Call me weak. But whether you’re weak or more likely, you’re strong and you think you can handle that kind of wind blowing in your face and it doesn’t touch you. And you don’t have a story yet to tell about that, you will. You will.

Do not be deceived. It’s not there because he needed an intro to a principle. It’s there because he knows if he just said, “Bad company corrupts good morals.” There’s a lot of yawning going on. Don’t be deceived into thinking that way.

Paul is saying it really does happen. Would you turn back five chapters to verse 10, chapter 10 real quick, okay? First Corinthians 10. You really, it’s in your notes at the bottom as they’re provided for you and you can access those online folks that are joining us this morning. There’s notes that are further discussion, conversation, stuff.

And at the bottom, there’s scriptures. Would you look those up because chapter 10, verses one to 13, is a whole list of things in first Corinthians 10, verses one to 13, of people that live in long ago and verse six and verse 11 repeat something that’s worth reading. These things occurred as examples to them to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as they did. A whole bunch of temptation they thought they had. They thought they could handle verse 11.

These things happened to them as examples and were actually written down as warnings. Somebody say it out loud for who? For us, if you think that describes somebody else, then just close your Bible. There’s nothing left to talk about. But if you think they describe us, raise your hand.

There you go. I totally do. When I read us, I’m us. On whom the culmination of the ages has come. He says that twice and then look at verse 12.

‘Cause it’s kind of an early warning of what we read in 1 Corinthians 15, 33, verse 12, therefore to the one who thinks he stands or she stands, do what? Be careful, take heed lest you fall. In other words, it’s possible to read about all these problems that the ancients had and go, we’re enlightened, dude. And it ain’t gonna happen anymore. I’m above that.

Please don’t mistake in my intensity right now is some kind of guy going back to his youth pastor days. I’m not. I’m just around too many grown adults that know better. There’s real folly in saying, I got this. That’s not gonna happen here, pastor.

Are you sure about that? So the time of the judges is a testament to a powerful, almost permanent influence of a certain group of people known as the Canaanites who lived in the land where God’s people had just arrived. Israelites? Were another name for God’s people. Though repeatedly warned of the malevolence of these dwellers in the land, Canaanites.

By the way, Canaanites includes the heptites, the Jebusites, the parasites, all of them make up what’s known as the Canaanites, just for our understanding of the book of judges. So they ignored God’s, watch this, stay away. And neon, stay away. They ignored the Israelites, ignored God’s stay away sign when referencing those people that lived in the land that these people lived among for over three centuries. And the results of those people became a very significant thorn in the sides.

Of God’s people. So let’s take a look at Judges chapter two. So just turn back there right now to Judges two. It’s kind of where we left off last week. And I want to just state it this way.

God gives a very short summary of both his instructions and Israel’s disobedience. So verse one, the angel of the Lord, verse one of chapter two in Judges. The angel of the Lord went up from Gilgal down by the river, and said, I brought you up out of Egypt, and I led you into the land I swore to give to your ancestors. So he starts by reminding them of their roots. You were in a bad spot.

I took you out of that. I led you into this new land filled with, it’s in the name, promise. It’s the promise land. Not only promise by God, filled with that promise. That’s God’s word here in verse one.

And then he reviewed for them a command that he expected them to keep. Look at verse two. And you shall not make a covenant with the people of this land, but you shall break down their altars. Yet you have disobeyed me. And I love how the Bible teaches.

It does a better job of this than I do. It asks questions. Why have you done this? So he’s saying, he’s reviewing them, the command that God gave them that was plain speak, no complication. And he’s asking, why have you not kept that?

And then he reveals to them in verse three, the consequences for their failure to keep the command. Look at this. I’ve also said, I will not drive them out before you, but they will become traps for you. And their gods will become snares to you. Think of it this way, forms that are a constant temptation for you.

Boy, did history prove that to be true. And verses four and five, the scene is super sad. The angel of the Lord, when he had spoken these things, Israel felt the effects. They wept loudly. They poured out their hearts.

They were sad. They even called the place “boken,” which means weepers are weeping. So last week in our study of Israel’s incomplete obedience, we witnessed the start of this struggle that stayed with them, as I said, for more than three centuries. It’s a long time. And these people would become, as God predicted, a very bad influence.

Would you turn the page to chapter two, verse 10? After that whole congregation had been gathered to their ancestors. So the first generation there. Another generation grew up, watch this, who neither knew the Lord nor what he had done for Israel. Then the Israelites did evil, pay close attention now.

They did evil in the eyes of the Lord and serve the bales. They forsook the Lord, the God of their ancestors, who had brought them out of Egypt. We just read all about that. And they followed and worshiped various gods. If you’re circling words or phrases, this is it.

Of the peoples around them. See that in verse 12. They aroused the Lord’s anger because they forsook him and served bales and ash to rest. Those are false gods, demons, if you will. Idols.

In his anger, verse 14, “In his anger against Israel, the Lord gave them into the hands of raiders who plundered them, and he sold them into the hands of their enemies, circled these two words as well, all around, whom they were no longer able to resist. Whenever Israel went out to fight, the hand of the Lord was against them to defeat them. Just as he had sworn to them, they were then in great distress. Two times we read a powerful word that afflicted Israel for three centuries because they didn’t do what God said to do. The word around, these people lived in the neighborhood with them.

They rubbed shoulders with them. The word around means surrounded by, in the midst of, they’re on every side of, that’s what verses 12 and 14. 14 are saying here. How does that get rid of them? Clear them out.

Make no covenant with them. Make no bond with them. What’s up with that? I don’t like it when someone says I told you so. Have you ever had that happen to you?

I just don’t like that. From my earliest memory, the first week, I got my license when I was 16 on the day of my birthday. Sometime later that day, my dad was driving with me and took me to get my test. He said to me, “Steve, you’re driving too fast.” I’m like, “No, no, Dad.

I’m good. I’m good.” I said something snotty like, “Younger people have better reflexes.” Genius, right? Right, right.

Guess what? I didn’t get one. I got two tickets the first week I had my license. I’m not kidding you. Once on the way to school and once coming home, it’s a different cop.

I can’t believe. I mean, and then here’s the grabber. You know what he said. Told you so. Times two, you know?

Oh, sure. You make him feel good now. This service is getting carried away right now, boy. We’re going for it. This is God’s I told you so moment here.

They were clearly warned and they completely ignored his warning. They experienced exactly what he told them would happen. Y’all, that’s called I told you so. Times 10. I want to flip back.

We have a couple of minutes to do this. So flip back to a speech. It’s in the end of Joshua, so you don’t have to go very far. Joshua 23. You turn back there and it picks up at verse nine.

The whole chapter is the final speech of Joshua 23. And then he goes to be with Jesus. Okay? So the Lord had driven out before you great and powerful nations. I’m reading from verse nine to this day.

No one has been able to withstand you. Joshua 23 verse 10. And if you enter Mary with them, talk about getting cozy and associate with them, then you may be sure that the Lord your God will no longer drive out those nations before you. Instead, they will become snares and traps and the Lord is the Lord. They will be like whips on your back and thorns in your eyes until you perish from this good land which the Lord your God has given you.

Wow. You said so in verse 12. Before you say, yep, they were told, you got that one right. He’s telling the verdict to move on, not so fast. I want you to hear words spoken to the people 30 years before Joshua 23.

You can turn there and just listen to it. Numbers 33 is by Moses in his last days. Okay? He’s telling the people in chapter 33, amazingly similar things. Right?

So listen to this, chapter 33 of numbers. You have your Bible open to that. You see the word. It’s all not some, not a few, all of them. Destroy all their carved images and all their cast idols and demolish all of their high places.

And then they’re in verse 55 is if you don’t. Listen, if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land, those you allow to remain will become barbs in your eyes and thorns in your flesh. That’s exactly what we just walked away from in Joshua 23, is it not? My reason for reading both of those passages rather quickly here is quite practical. If God were given to, I told you so.

In other words, if God really said, I told you so, a more accurate description of God would have been, I told you and I told you and I told you so. That would have been accurate. This isn’t a, I told you once, what’s up? It’s, I repeated myself. I have to say it.

You see, bad influences do turn out badly. They do. Let me illustrate what I mean. You don’t have to turn there. It’s in your notes too.

Proverbs chapter six is about an uncomfortable topic. Anytime it’s read, actually chapters five, six and seven are all about adultery. And those words in Proverbs six are written to people who are flirting with the possibility. And that’s actually upon, it’s also not a good one. People that are considering wandering from their fidelity as a married person.

And Proverbs six says, verse 27, two questions, two questions. Can someone scoop fire into their lap? Look at your lap right now. Everybody just look at your own lap. Can someone scoop fire into their lap, verse 27, without their clothes being burned?

I don’t think so. It’s gonna wreck your pants or skirt. Their legs maybe. If you don’t get it off fast enough. Second question, can someone walk on hot coals without their feet being scorched?

There was a hyper possibility thinker one time that said, yeah, and he demonstrated it in front of the people. And then after the convention, his name was Tony somebody. He went to the hospital for scalding burns on the bottom. Of his feet. Hey brain trust, not a good idea.

I mean, really. Can someone, it’s just simple questions. The expected answer is no. The same exact principle can be said of bad influences. If God were to ask, can someone be surrounded by sinners intimately connected with sinners, with committed covenantal togetherness with sinners and it not impact their lives.

I’m gonna say, and this will sound like I’m hedging maybe, but it’s a long shot. Big time. Of those words we started with in 1 Corinthians 10. Yeah, these things happen to them as examples for us. In other words, stay away.

It didn’t work out for them. Don’t deceive yourself in thinking it’ll work out better for you. So as I conclude this message, you can fold your Bible close for a moment. I have a confession. I’m a bit of a maverick.

No revelation there, right? So what is a maverick? It means that I’m capable of hearing and preaching a message like this with clear with a clear and understood warning. Myself. That’s not gonna happen to me.

I’ve also been described as a steer in a blizzard by a mentor of mine many years ago, revealing a self view that can sometimes sometimes sound like this. Others need to hear this message, but not me. ’cause I’m not gonna blink when I nose to nose with sin. If you tend to think like that, I have words I need to leave with you today. When you hear them, I can guarantee a couple of reactions.

They will cause a significant stir in you. It’s my belief that in fact, if God has his way the stir is of his Holy Spirit. I believe that. And if he has his way, I think he wants to compel you to think and even rethink the power of influences that are in your life already that you’re living with comfortably. With that said, I want you to listen as the Holy Spirit prompts you to do whatever it is he wants you to do.

Remember our words earlier, guard, escape, flee, stuff like that. Resist, avoid, all of that. So I want you to give some thought enough of a preview to your contacts. To your friendships, I didn’t bring my phone with me. Think of anybody on your phone list that shouldn’t be there.

I know they’re a friend. We’ve got all kinds of words for that. I want you to think of your social media community. As well as any other association you may have that if you’re really honest in this raw moment, you’re going to say that’s probably a risk I’ve been living with. Now you’re ready to hear these words from 2 Corinthians 6 verses 14 to 18.

Just listen. What harmony can there be between Christ and the devil? How can a believer be a partner with an unbeliever? And what union can there be between God’s temple and the devil? And what is the devil?

Don’t tolerate yourself from them, says the Lord. Don’t touch, he concludes, don’t touch their filthy things and I will welcome you and I will be your father and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord almighty. God’s word, the say of the Lord. Let’s bow now and pray. We come to you, God, stirred as predicted.

It’s something that probably has more of a hold on us than most influences today is the associations we have. We have different names for it today, God, but none of that matters. We hear your word and we go, what needs to change in me? There’s all kinds of pushback. Jesus was friends of sinners.

No, no, no, no. You had a very clear, precise purpose and you are God. The temptation is real and relentless to us today, oftentimes influenced by Canaanites in our lives that we shouldn’t be cozy with. So God, we need your fire to burn that from our souls, to purify us, to make that a desire we have, Lord. Some of us aren’t there.

Some of us are, if we’re honest, we’ve leaned away from you. We don’t even spend time with your people. We haven’t been to church in a long time. No accountability, really, of any sort happening in our lives. There are danger.

There are warning signs out there, Lord. Help us to hear them. Help us to see them. And with your help, Holy Spirit, I pray that you would set us free from them. But it starts in the heart.

Refine our hearts as we sing to you now.

Transcript machine-generated from the sermon audio, so it may contain errors. 5,544 words.