1 Thessalonians 5:10-11
"10 He died for us so that, whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with Him. 11Therefore encourage and build one another up, just as you are already doing."
We are to encourage one another with the words of God, depending on Him. When we look all around us and become depressed we are forgetting God has a plan, the world is perishing and we are kept Spiritually and emotionally safe from the effects of the world as long as our focus is Christ.
We are stable unless we allow the world to whip us around like the wind, becoming emotionally destabilized because our focus is this world.
Never allow anyone to tell you it is irresponsible to ignore the things of the world to follow Christ. This mentality is coming from the devil to keep your focus on the world instead of Christ. Those who are called of God will be deeply entrenched in the lives of others to bring the gospel, they have no time to research the filth of the world to know about it.
You may be accused of putting your head in the sand to save yourself, this is manipulation from the devil. When we ignore the goings-on in the world as much as we are able, we are keeping our minds stayed upon Christ.
Philippians 4:8 "Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, think about these things."
We have nothing to offer the unbeliever if we are walking around all sour-faced and depressed acting as though there is no hope.
While it is true there is no hope for the world to be saved or for any country to be saved, the world is perishing. However, there is great hope for any individual who chooses to trust in Christ for their salvation. Instead of bringing gloom and doom to the unbeliever, we should be bringing hope. The hope comes from the gospel message. We are not here to save a nation, we are here to present the gospel that will bring individual souls to Christ.
When our focus has been deterred to saving a nation we have lost our first love. Our focus ought to be the saving of souls for the Kingdom of God.
If we must know something from the world to be able to help others that is far different from immersing ourselves in the world merely to know the filth.
We can help people the most by leading them to Christ, not by complaining continually about everything that is around us.
When a soldier is deployed to a foreign country he does not focus on the politics of the country, he focuses on the mission his commander has given him to carry out.
What is our mission in this foreign land in which we dwell? Our mission is to live like Christ, encourage believers in the Word, and lead unbelievers to the Savior.
Matthew 28:19-20 "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."
What or Who is the Word:
John 1:1 "1, In the beginning, was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning.…"
John 1:14
"And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth."
Jesus Christ is the very essence of His Word the Scriptures. Within the Words of the Bible, we hear from God through Jesus Christ.
John 14:10
"Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on My own authority; but the Father who dwells in Me does the works."
John 4:34
"Jesus said to them, "My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work."
John 6:63
"It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life."
It is the Spirit Who gives life, not this world and its systems, not our desires, and not anything of this world.
1 Corinthians 8:6
"yet for us there is one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we for Him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and through whom we live."
Philippians 2:9-11
"Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."
There is nothing more important for the born-again believer than to bring people to Christ, non-believers who never knew Him and believers whose minds have been distracted from Him. Everything else is dung!
When we are walking the narrow road and a sewer comes up alongside the road, do we go walking in the sewer so we can know all about it? No, we walk around it, avoiding its stink and filth that it does not get on us. If we run across an unbeliever who is stranded in the sewer we pull them out, but we do not stay in the sewer with them. We point out the stink from afar warning our brothers and sisters to avoid it. If a non-believer who is entrenched in the sewer comes along we show them the narrow road so they no longer have to walk in the sink. We help the non-believer to see the love of Christ, the way of salvation and the glory of Christ. Those who are fleshly focus on the sewer, those who are Spiritual focus on Christ.
It is Satan's trick to divert our attention to telling unbelievers all the terrible things they should avoid without bringing to them the gospel. All we manage to do is confuse them, even harden them further because they do not see the filth the way we do. Our mission is to show the unbeliever the cross, the sinfulness that dwells in them. If they believe on the Lord Jesus Christ their personal lives will be cleansed and they will walk in hope.
I fear many Christians are too busy complaining about the world to share the clear and hopeful gospel to those who are perishing. Many Christians I know are sharing the evils with unbelievers rather than the gospel that saves.
Hebrews 4:13
"Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight; everything is uncovered and exposed before the eyes of Him to whom we must give account."
The Lord is removing the lampstand of America because we have placed politics, wealth and personal desire above Christ. Christianity in this country has been diverted to social clubs that have a form of godliness but deny the truth of the word of God in more ways than they obey it.
Traditions and pleasure in the church have become more important than changed lives, lives that have trusted Christ and seek Him for cleansing and holiness.
The church has deviated from God's plan for it and because of that, it is full of professing Christian who have not been born again. They divert attention to the world while discouraging those who want to walk more circumspectly with Christ.
I remember someone who once told me they were into pornography before they were born again. After he found Christ and He came to dwell in the man, the man was changed. After being changed by Christ he hated the very thing that was addictive for him before his transformation. He told me that he was so disgusted with the filth he used to love that he avoided any contact with it ever again. It wasn't that he might go back into it, it was because seeing it again brought back discouragement and ugliness that he never wants to feel again.
When we have been cleansed from the sewer we will avoid walking in it, why would we except to rush to pull another person out of it through the preaching of the gospel.
If you resolve to keep your focus on Christ and obey what He tells you, be sure, especially in America, that you will be chastised for not being political.
You will be badgered to follow a man and place your trust in human leaders instead of Christ. You will be told you are irresponsible for thinking that God puts in power leaders and takes them out. The people that will treat you in this disrespectful manner will consider you ignorant for not filling your mind with useless things that de-edify.
De-edify, the opposite of edifying, removing your peace, fill your mind with continual discouragement instead of holiness. Filling one's mind with garbage to cause depression and hopelessness.
Edify, to build up in the faith! to instruct and improve especially in the ways of God, uplift, enlighten, inform about the ways of God.
John 17:16-26
"16 They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 17 Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth. 18 Just as You sent Me into the world, I also sent them into the world. 19 And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, so that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth.
20 “I am not asking on behalf of these alone, but also for those who believe in Me through their word, 21 that they may all be one; just as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may [a]believe that You sent Me."
