(Poem) “All the water in the world - however hard it tried, could never, never sink a ship… unless it got inside. All the temptations of this world might wear you pretty thin, but they won't hurt you, one least bit... unless you let them in.” (I could not find the author)
It’s a repeated theme of Scripture - you should not let temptation rule your life. Don’t let sin get inside because it will sink your ship. Of course, the question is - how does sin get inside? What could we possibly do that would allow temptation to take us down?
One of the answers (though not the only one) is sin gets inside because of who we hang out with. We’re warned in I Corinthians 15:33 - Do not be deceived: “Bad company ruins good morals.” And Proverbs 13:20 tells us “Whoever walks with the wise becomes wise, but the companion of fools will suffer harm.”
And, of course, here in Psalm 1 we have the same warning: “Blessed is the man who walks NOT in the counsel of the wicked, NOR stands in the way of sinners, NOR sits in the seat of scoffers” Psalm 1:1
DON’T DO THAT!!! Don’t spend your time with folks who are wicked, who enjoy sin, who mock righteousness. Why? Because the people we hang out with have an effect on us. Folks who allow this influence remind of the story of a little boy had a large shaggy dog on a leash. Someone asked the boy "Where are you taking him?" “I don't know yet,” the boy replied, “but when he makes up his mind where he wants to go, I'm gonna take him there.”
People around us can tend to drag us where THEY want to go. In our culture it’s often referred to as “Peer Pressure.”
ILLUS: Several years ago, Dr. James Dobson told of an experiment they studied the ways in which group pressure influences young people. They gathered 10 teens in a room and told them they were going to evaluate their “depth perception” and see how well each student could “see” to the front of the room where they sat. At the front of the room, an instructor held up cards with lines on them Line A, Line B and Line C – each of a different length. The teens were then instructed to raise their hand when the instructor pointed to the line on that card which was LONGER than the others. (I created a “poster” to display on th overhead what the teens might have seen).
What one of the students didn’t know… was that the other 9 had been secretly informed to vote for the SECOND longest line. In other words, those 9 teens were told to vote WRONGLY. When the instructor held up the first card and pointed to Line A (which was clearly shorter than line B) all 9 students raised their hands.
The 10th young man who wasn’t in on the joke looked around in disbelief. It was obvious that Line B was the longest line, but everybody seemed to think Line A was longer. He later admitted that he thought, “I must not have been listening during the directions. Somehow, I missed the point, and I’d better do what everybody else is doing or they’ll laugh at me.” So he timidly raised his hand with the rest of the group.
Then the researchers explained the directions again: “Vote for the longest line; raise your hand when we point to the longest line.” It couldn’t have been more simple! Then they held up the 2nd card… and again, 9 people voted for the wrong line. By now, the young man was totally confused - and he was frustrated and stressed out. If he didn’t vote with the others he might be ridiculed - so eventually he raised his hand with the rest of the group again. Over and over he voted with the group even tho’ he knew they were wrong
And that young man was not unusual. The experiment was repeated over and over again with different groups of teens. More than 75 percent of the young people tested behaved that same way. Time after time, they’d say that the shorter line was longer than the long line. They simply didn’t have the courage to say, “Everybody else is wrong.” AND this is what peer pressure does to folks. (James Dobson Ph.D. Focus On The Family Magazine 6/00)
ILLUS: Now, we tend to think that peer pressure as something unique to the young. But it’s not!!!
Several years ago, a movie reviewer and talk show host Michael Medved was puzzled about the # of R-Rated movies there were on the market. He said, you’d think R-Rated movies were highly profitable because the movie companies were making so many of them compared to G and PG rated films. BUT, (in reality) they rarely made much of a profit. By contrast, G and PG movies made far more money because families would take their kids to more family friendly shows.
So, why would Film Studies produce so many R-Rated movies? His Answer: PEER PRESSURE. He noted Awards like the Golden Globe and the Oscars rarely if ever went to the family friendly movies. Those awards overwhelmingly went to R and X rated fare. Movie producers wanted to please their peers… so they made raunchier movies.
No matter how old you are, or how powerful and wealthy you may be peer pressure can have a substantial influence on you. And God warns us that we must be careful not to allow worldly thinking to influence our lives.
ILLUS: There is a story about a woman who was preparing a salad for dinner. Her daughter came into the kitchen and casually asked for permission to go to amusement center that had a particularly bad reputation. When her mom refused, the girl got upset and said: "Well, all the girls are going to be there... etc." After a short silence the mother began to reach into the sink and pulled out some of the wilted lettuce & scrapings from the vegetables and sprinkled them on the salad. Her daughter was shocked asked her mother what she thought she was doing. Her mother replied: "I just thought that if you didn't mind putting garbage into your heart and mind, you wouldn't mind a little garbage in your salad."
When you hang out with people who mock righteousness, and laugh about immorality, and live … like the devil, that’s what you end up with – Garbage in your heart and mind. It can’t help but influence you. And God says: DON’T GO THERE… DON’T DO THAT!!
And yet… many Christians do. They like the food, the entertainment and the mirage of being “adult.” They boldly but unwisely say “I’m not a child anymore. I can handle it.” But as Proverbs 13:20 “the companion of fools will suffer harm.”
Now… how many of you agree – we shouldn’t hang out with ungodly people? That bad company ruins good morals? At first service, people weren’t as eager to raise their hands… because they sensed a trap. And they were RIGHT!!! There’s a problem here. As Christians this command confronts us with a conflict we have to figure out.
You see - God has told us not to hang out with nasty people - the immoral… the scorners of righteousness… the SINNERS. And yet, one of the complaints of the Pharisees had about Jesus was that “This man receives sinners and eats with them” (Luke 15:2). Jesus ate with sinners!!! (PAUSE) What’s going on here???
(PAUSE) Well, in order to know the answer to THAT question, we need to answer another question: Why DID Jesus do that? Why did He spend time with sinners? The answer is found in Luke 19:10 “The Son of Man came to SEEK and to SAVE the lost.”
So, IS that what God wants us to do? Does God want us to seek and save the lost? Of course He does. Does that mean - like Jesus - we need to spend time with sinners? Well…
But now… wait a minute here. If I’m NOT supposed to be a “companion” of sinners; if I’m NOT supposed to “hang out” with the immoral and the unrighteous of this world; how can I possibly spend time with them/eat with them?
It is a huge “question mark” for a lot of Christians, and so – to err on the side of caution – lots of Christians just don’t. They don’t seek the lost. They don’t build relationships with the immoral. They just let the sinners to go to hell
ILLUS: One of the reasons we hired Scott (our Family Minister) is because he doesn’t think like that. Years ago, Scott and his wife Terri were missionaries to the ghettos of St. Louis. They not only worked with the gang members there, they bought a house there and lived among them. Scott told me of the evening when an ambulance pulled up to one of the houses across the street from their home, and (concerned it might be someone he was working with) he went over to investigate. It turned out it was a couple girls who lived there, and one of them had gotten hurt, and they were being taken to the ER. Scott asked if they had a way home afterward… they didn’t. So he offered to drive there and give them a lift back home. AND … while they were at the ER he discovered that they were strippers at one of the local clubs!!!!
Now, how many of you think Scott would have offered to help them if he’d known they were strippers before he went to the ER? (Everybody raised their hands). OF COURSE HE WOULD HAVE! And while he was at the ER he got the chance to talk to them a little bit about Jesus.
Now why didn’t that bother Scott? Because he understood the idea that Jesus came to seek and save the lost. And WE were saved so that we (in turn) might seek and save other lost people as well! That’s our mandate.
In Matthew 28:19-20 Jesus commanded “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
But now, how do I do that without getting my hands dirty? How do I do this so that their “bad company” doesn’t spoil my “good morals.”
One meme said it this way: “Yes, Jesus hung out with prostitutes, and drunkards, and outcasts. Here’s the thing though – by the time Jesus was finished with these people they weren’t prostitutes, and drunkards and outcasts anymore. Jesus came to transform people, NOT indulge them. Christianity is about surrender, NOT comfort. We are to align ourselves to His standard, NOT the other way around.”
In other words, the reason Jesus spent time with SINNERS was to CHANGE them – to INFLUENCE their destiny. He came to GO into their specific setting and to bring them to God. But Jesus did not go to spend time with them TO indulge their behavior. For example: Jesus didn’t get drunk with drunkards. He never spent time drinking a few whiskeys with the boys down at the bar. JESUS NEVER COMPROMISED HIS PURITY IN ORDER TO REACH THE LOST! But He went to the lost with the specific goal of changing their lives
Now, the question is, do we do that? When you spend time in non-Christian settings with non-Christian people do you think about how you can bring them to Christ? When you are with Non-Christians, and you know they’re not Christians - why are you there?
ILLUS: Think about it this way: Why do you go to a restaurant? To EAT a meal. Why do you go to the movies? To watch a MOVIE. Why do you go to the grocery store? To buy groceries!
Now, do you go to the restaurant to buy groceries? No! Do you go to the grocery store to watch a movie? Of course not. Or, do you go to a movie theatre to eat a meal (popcorn & candy don’t count)? We go to specific settings --- to accomplish specific goals.
So, if I go as a Christian to spend time with people who are lost, I should NOT go to ENGAGE in sinful behavior. I should NOT go to surround myself with their entertainment. I should go where I go… to bring folks to Christ.
When you go to the restaurant, give the waitress a church calling card (and a generous tip). If you are part of a fraternal organization find a way to talk about Jesus.
ILLUS: I recently read about this huge church somewhere (they have several campuses) where they deliberately recruit their members to go join civic organizations across the city. Their intention – go into the world and talk about Christ.
ILLUS: There’s a fairly large congregation in our city who has a huge attendance. They got their start by going into the bars to talk with people. They didn’t go to drink the alcohol, they went to find people to bring to Jesus.
My point? Find people who are lost, and make it your goal to reach them for Christ.
ILLUS: There’s the true story of an atheist who once told an evangelist, "If I believed what you Christians say you believe about a coming judgment and that impenitent rejecters of Christ will be lost, I would crawl on my bare knees on crushed glass all over London, warning men, night and day, to flee for refuge from the coming day of wrath!" (Atheist’s comment to William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army)
Do you believe that? Do you believe that there’s a coming judgment? Do you believe that people will go to hell? Then we’ve GOT to take this seriously. We have a mandate to reach the lost… so do it.
CLOSE: An evangelist once approached man asking him to help reach people for Christ. The man replied “I don’t wear my religion on my sleeve. My religion is personal, and I don’t want to talk about it.” The evangelist was a bit startled. So he asked him, “You are a Christian aren’t you?” The man replied “Yes, but I’m not a religious fanatic.” The evangelist paused for a moment and then said this: “Did it ever occur to you that it cost Jesus Christ His life so you could call yourself a Christian? It cost the disciples their lives too, and millions of Christian throughout the centuries have suffered or died as martyrs in order to get the message of God’s love and forgiveness to you. Now do you really believe that your faith in Christ is personal and private and that shouldn’t talk about it?” The other man bowed his head, “No sir, I’m wrong. Tell me what I can do about it.”
(Bill Bright relating a true experience he had - in Pulpit Helps Oct. 05 p. 8)
