Avoid Them

Avoid Them (Romans 16: 17-20)

16) Watch out for those people who cause divisions in your life

Who cause division in your church

There are people in this world that loves to stir up trouble

Ever met anyone like this

Don’t look at your spouse, don’t look at other church members

Paul is talking about the ones who cause trouble in your life and in your church

See, people read this scripture and some really believe that they are only talking about events that occurred back then

Don’t get me wrong, these things occurred

Hear me when I say this, this was left for us to read and to go by in 2026

It says take note to those who get up here and try to create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught

You talk about something that is so easy to get involved in

Have you heard the old saying, one rotten apple will spoil the whole bunch

If we let someone up here and teach or preach something that contradicts the doctrine we believe in

It will be a matter of time before someone else will piggy back off of that

And before you know it, we have let it creep into our church

Scripture refers to us being sheep for a reason

We tend to follow the crowd

Meaning if we hear something long enough, we start believing it

Give you an example, if someone keeps telling you that I believe you can box when you are working out

You hear this enough times, you are going to eventually get in the ring and give it a shot

Now chances are, you are probably going to get destroyed

But is that not what happens to us in life when we are mislead?

There are several churches around here that has twisted things to accommodate their personal beliefs in life

I am not going to harp on this forever

What I am going to tell you is what scripture says

If people are trying to change the doctrine that you believe in, you may want to avoid them

Paul says it plainly - AVOID THEM

You are going to run into people like this

You will not escape it, you can’t control it, what you can control is you can avoid them

You choose if you hang around and listen to them

18) So many people do not serve our Lord

They are only out to serve themselves

They are only wanting to server their own appetites

We live in such a selfish world

We are taught it is all about me, me, me

We are taught to be narcissistic, are we not?

Do what makes you happy

Look out for yourself

Don’t worry about other people

Why do you think the divorce rate is so high

They will say listen, you got to make yourself happy

Listen my friend, being married is not always happy

It is hard at times, it is difficult

It is the hardest thing that I have ever done in my life

God designed marriage to be more holy not happy

Some People are out for themselves only

They are good at fair speeches

Silver tongues is what they are called, the ones who are good with words

People will deceive your heart

They will trip you, stomp you and then walk right over the top of you

We have to be on the lookout at all times for these things

We need to avoid those situations as much as possible

Let’s face it, life is tough enough, we really don’t need to make it more complicated and harder then what it already is

19) Your obedience has been great

I am proud of you for that

Keep being obedient, people see

People may never say to youth I see your obedience but trust me, they are watching

It is something that you can’t hide

It stands out

People tend to have a hard time commending you

Now if you make a bad choice, you will hear about it

Unfortunately, that is the world that we live in

This world is full of negativity and they will point it out every time

Don’t let this go to your head

Don’t get cocky

Be smart, be wise, head on a swivel

Make sure that every good thing is the real thing

Did you hear that?

Don’t take a counterfeit that Satan throws out there

Know that it is the real thing

Don’t be gullible, don’t fall for the silver tongue

Don’t fall for the flashy

Stay alert, be sober, be vigilant

Evil is amongst us and it wonts you to lose your testimony, your friends, your family, he wants everything you got

He wants you to be absolutely miserable

20) I got some great news