Genesis 34; Genesis 35; Genesis 36; Luke 14
Don’t Lose Your Influence – Tim Tebow Has A Unique Platform And So Do We!
Scripture
Luke 14
Don’t Lose Your Influence
34 “Salt is a good thing. But if the salt loses its salty taste, you can’t make it salty again. 35 It is worth nothing. You can’t even use it as dirt or dung. People just throw it away.
Observation
Are you following Tim Tebow? No matter what you think about him there is one thing for certain and that thing is this…God has given him a unique platform to share the Gospel and influence people. God has also given you and I unique platforms to share the Gospel and influence the people around us.
What we have to watch and what Tim Tebow has to watch is that we don’t lose our influence by doing something stupid. You might ask, “Well what stupid thing could I do to lose my influence with those around me?” Here are just a few of the stupid things that we could do that would cause us to fall: adultery, dishonesty, sexual immorality, lying, and pride. In other words…SIN!
So how do you and I maintain our integrity and keep from falling. How do we keep from losing our influence? You and I need to establish boundaries.
To keep from falling into sexual sin I have set up some boundaries for my life; here are a few:
1. I don’t ride in a car with alone with a woman unless it is Kathy or one of my children or grandchildren.
2. I will never share a meal alone with a woman except for Kathy.
3. I will not counsel a woman more than once and when I counsel her that first and last time I make sure the door is open and my secretary knows that she is in my office.
4. I do not look at bedroom scenes or Victoria Secret commercials on television or anything else sexually inappropriate for me.
Have you established boundaries? Does your spouse know them and do you hold each other accountable. Too many of my friends have lost their influence with those around them because they did not set boundaries with the opposite sex. And they did something stupid!
Another way we could lose our influence on those around us is if we begin to think more of ourselves than we should. Christians that are professional athletes, other Christians that may be celebrities, and even pastors that stand in the pulpit each week run the risk of starting to believe that they are more than they are. Once they begin to receive the glory from people then it is all over … they have begun to lose their influence. They have become salt that has lost its salty taste.
My prayer for Tim Tebow is that he will always give God the glory. My prayer for my pastor Bruce Moore is that he will always give God the glory. My prayer for you and I is the same thing that we will always give God the glory. God wants to use us to bring those around us to a personal relationship with Him. And He will use us if we remain people of integrity.
By the way, even if Tim Tebow and the Broncos lose tonight they are still winners!
Application
I will stay in God’s Word everyday and I will stay close to Him. I will maintain my boundaries with those of the opposite sex. How about you?
Prayer
Heavenly Father, I do pray for Tim Tebow today. I also pray for my pastor Bruce Moore. I pray that both of these men will continue to bring You glory. Keep them from doing the stupid things that would cause them to lose their influence. Help them to set up and maintain boundaries in their lives.
I pray that you would use the leadership in our church to continue influencing those that are coming every week. I pray that Your hand would remain on our church and that we would continue to see lives changed. Don’t let our church lose its influence on the city of Tampa! Keep us salty Lord. Keep us salty! Be gloried in us and through us today!
1 comment:
Staying in God's word everyday is crucial to seeing those temptations the way that God does. Our thoughts can be His thoughts if we stay in the Word!
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