OPENING SCRIPTURE:

Walk with the wise and become wise; ASSOCIATE with fools and get in trouble (Proverbs 13:20 NLT)

• Relationships are never neutral.
• Walk often refers to lifestyle, daily conduct, direction of life.
• Walk implies movement in the same direction.
• The word has a deeper meaning than walk.
• Associate: to join closely, to connect deeply, to become linked with.
• The danger is being associated with someone but walking in different directions – That’s chaos and confusion.

“Can two people walk together without agreeing on the direction?” (Amos 3:3 NLT)

Who you walk with will determine who you associate yourself with. Proximity Matters!

Does that mean that believers should avoid unbelievers?

The answer is no! The answer is awareness.

• Personal awareness – Know your boundaries.
• Spiritual Awareness – Know who God is in you.
• Jesus sat with sinners, but sinners never changed Jesus.

#1: Your Relationships Shape Your Future

 Do not be misled: “Bad company corrupts good character.” (1 Corinthians 15:33 NIV)Bottom of Form

• Don’t underestimate the power of influence.

“Show me your friends and I’ll show you your future” ~ Dan Pena

Character is formed slowly through repeated exposure.

Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers but whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on his law, day and night. That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season
and whose leaf does not wither- whatever they do prospers. (Psalm 1:1-3 NIV)

• Progression: walk, stand, sit – compromise grows gradually

Who you walk with today will influence where you arrive tomorrow.

• Spiritual stability begins with guarding your environment.
• Not everyone should have equal access to your heart.

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#2: Love People Without Losing Your Convictions

God calls us to reach people who are struggling- but not lose our own spiritual footing in the process.

Jesus ate with tax collectors and sinners, but He did not lose spiritual footing in the process.

Matthew invited Jesus and his disciples to his home as dinner guests, along with many tax collectors and other disreputable sinners.

Jesus said, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor—sick people do… For I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners.” (Matthew 9:10-13 NLT)

• His presence brought transformation, not compromise.

DON’T COPY the behavior and customs of this world, but LET GOD TRANSFORM YOU into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect. (Romans 12:2 NLT)

• God calls us to stand out, not blend in.
• You can be kind and loving without agreeing and joining in.

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#3: Godly Community Stregthens Your Faith

 Let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works. And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near. (Hebrews 10:24-25 NLT)

• Faith was never meant to be lived alone. Isolation weakens spiritual endurance.

Two people are better off than one, for they can help each other succeed. If one person falls, the other can reach out and help. But someone who falls alone is in real trouble. (Ecclesiastes 4:9-10 NLT)

• God designed believers to help lift one another.

Is Jesus in your circle?

 Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. (John 15: 4-5 NKJ)

• What Jesus is saying here is: Am I in your circle?
• You and I cannot bear fruits unless Jesus in in our circle.

CONCLUSION

What is the Holy Spirit saying to you through this message?