Latest / The Daily Word / May 19 – Check Your Circle
Transcript
- Brandon Dirmann: Welcome once again to another episode of the daily word podcast My name is Brandon one of the pastors at our church in case we haven't met and my goodness I am thrilled that you're taking time today to join us on the daily word podcast a podcast for every single day We use the life journal reading plan the resource that our church uses for spending time reading and studying the scripture every day And we use that reading plan ⁓ Here on the podcast to every day from the New Testament portion to bring an encouragement that will hopefully strengthen you and also hoping this is a catalyst and a reminder that God really does wanna speak to you. You know, I appreciate people that are like, man, this is so helpful to start my day this way and it's so helpful to be encouraged by this and as part of the goal. So thank you for saying that. But let me just remind you that God wants to speak to you, that God's not speaking to me for you necessarily all the time. but there's things that he wants to whisper in your ear. There's things that in the secret place, God wants to minister to you. God knows who you are, he knows where you are, and through his spirit and through his word, he wants to just to strengthen you and walk with you every day and help you become who he's called you to be. And so we love that you use this podcast, but it really, we want it to be a catalyst for you to be able to spend time with God on your own. That being said, today is May the 19th. And our reading today is in 2 Thessalonians chapter 3. And my goodness, I think I might step on your toes this morning. ⁓ Maybe I won't, but I just want to share something that really stuck out to me today that I just feel like is not super, ⁓ I don't know, popular. There's a lot of things not popular in the Bible and the culture that we're living in today, but this is one of the things that even in Christian circles I have found to be very unpopular. ⁓ Maybe because of misunderstanding, but I just think because we want to do what we want to do, you know what I mean? So here's what it is, 2nd Thessalonians chapter 3 verse 6. Here's what the writer says, but we command you. ⁓ stepping on my toes already. Don't tell me what to do. No, it's a command. We're commanding you, brethren, in the name of the Lord Jesus, that you withdraw from every brother who walks disorderly and not according to the tradition which he received from us. What is the author saying? The author said, hey, what I'm noticing in the community, remember, ⁓ first and second Thessalonians, they were books written to a local church community addressing local church issues. And he goes, hey, something I'm noticing is that, You your life is interconnected with your life's entangled with you're walking with you have close companionship and friendship you live in life with people who are not walking in the ways of Jesus now it says according to the tradition of which which he received from us, but But that that that tradition would have been the ways in the words of Jesus that the apostles, they were handing down the teachings, the words, the ways of Jesus. And so we can translate that, not walking in the ways of Jesus, not walking in the ways of God. And he goes, you're connected with someone who's not walking according to the tradition, not walking in the ways of God. And therefore, you gotta withdraw. Withdraw from every brother, withdraw from every friend, withdraw from every relationship. who's walking disorderly and not according to the tradition which has been handed or passed down. Let me give you some context for this. The Bible teaches us that relationships are powerful. Relationships are powerful. Proverbs chapter 13 verse 20, Proverbs 12, 26, 1 Corinthians 15, 33, some references that you can go and look at. But essentially the Bible tells us this, that who we are in relationship with, it, impacts the character we will develop and the direction our life will eventually go. Let me just say that again because that is a bar. Relationships, they determine the character we are developing and the direction we will eventually go. Relationships matter. And yet so often we kind of have this view where it's like, you know, like I'm godly and I'm following Jesus and I'm walking in the ways of God and I'm a good person and therefore who I'm who I'm surrounded with doesn't really matter that much. Let me just tell you, it's a deception. How we know it's a deception is that Paul says it's a deception in 1 Corinthians 15, 33, when he says, not be deceived. Oh, so we know it is a deception that maybe relationships impact some people, but not me. It's a deception. And he goes, don't be deceived. Hey, just don't get fooled. Don't be deceived that bad company or evil company. company that is disorderly, we'll go to this verse, it's disorderly. It's company that's not walking in the ways of God. It will corrupt good character. Now let me give a caveat. Does that mean that we don't talk to or we don't have relationship with anyone who's not a Christian? Absolutely not. Partly because that'd be insane because we live in a world that is full of people who are not following Jesus. ⁓ How are you going to go to work? How are you going to order the drive-through? How are you gonna get your taxes done? How are you gonna get your car worked on? We're surrounded by people in a world ⁓ that ⁓ primarily in our culture today is not following Jesus. So it doesn't mean that we don't have any relationships. And also, we got a caveat like God's call us to reach people. And you can only reach people through influence. And so it doesn't mean we don't spend time with people and that we don't have any connections with people who are outside of the faith, no. We live in a world. And we are connected to people who are outside of the faith and yet there are these primary relationships. These are the people that I'm intertwining my life with. If you can see me right now, I'm taking my hands and I'm interdigitating my fingers. I'm connecting them like I was holding hands with someone. The people that I'm connecting my life with. These relationships are different. These are our core relationships our core community the people that we're closest to and they're closest to us and and and they're the relationships that that matter and And the Bible teaches us that that we have to withdraw We have to make a decision sometimes to withdraw and to remove ourselves and to reorient our relationship ⁓ Circle because of our decision to follow Jesus And so my application today in all of that kind of messy ⁓ explanation is, I've been doing this lately, I just gave you three thoughts. Number one is I would say check your circle. Check your circle. Let just say it again. Number one, check your circle. Do a hard inventory. Who are the people that I'm, like not my coworkers, not people that I see every once in a while, who are the people that I'm going out with on a Friday night? Who are the people that I'm going on vacation with? Who are the people that I'm in group chats with? Who are the people I'm sending memes back and forth on Insta? Like who's my circle? And I would say check your circle. And if your circle is not men and women of God who are following God, who are walking in the ways of God, number two, you might need a new circle. So number one, check your circle, but number two, you might need a new circle. You might need to withdraw and say, God, in faith, I'm making a relational move. Believing that there's other relationships and other people you want to connect me to that are walking in your ways That that are going to to to help me to grow and to be strengthened and number three Walk in faith and invest in faith. So number one check your circle Who's my circle? number two Maybe reevaluate and reorient your circle and number three in faith in faith start investing and sowing into the relationships that that you need to have in the circles and the places that you need to like it's a faith thing and so often and I only got a couple minutes left and so I'll try to be brief but so often the reason we don't obey God is we just don't trust God a lot of a lot of times the reason we don't reorient our relational circles is because we don't trust and believe God that God will send us new friends we go ⁓ but what if I'm what if I'm lonely What if I don't have any friends? But what if I'm just now I don't have a circle that's called that's that's saying I don't trust God God I don't trust you enough to obey you. I don't trust you enough to follow you I don't trust you enough to do what you're telling me to do because I'm afraid that if I do it you won't come through can I just tell you you you got to make every move you make obeying God in faith and checking your circle and reorienting your circle and maybe investing in some new relationships, it might be a faith move for you to say, God, I so trust you that if as I check my circle and you start dealing and just Holy Spirit, leading me, I can trust you that around the corner, you have and you will provide for me the relationships I need and you will take care of all the things that are causing me to be fearful right now. However that hits you, wherever it hits you, I'm praying today, it's an encouragement. and that God uses it to strengthen you. So God, seal it in our heart and empower us to live it out. In Jesus' name, amen and amen. Thank you again and we'll see you tomorrow on another episode of the Daily Word Podcast.