(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Alright, we're here in Genesis chapter 12, and obviously the first sermon was kind of a hardcore sermon, and so this is more of a practical sermon, and it's kind of a two-part sermon series on the spiritual family, and this week's sermon is separation from physical family. Next week is separation onto the church family, okay? Now let me say this, in this sermon series and in the sermon here today, as I'm talking about separation from physical family, I'm not saying you must never talk to your parents ever again. You must never talk to your cousin or your brother. What I'm going to do is give you kind of three practical guidelines of reasons why you might want to separate. That separation might mean you withdraw yourself from how close you are to them. It doesn't mean that you never talk to them ever again, or depending on your situation, you might say, I've got to go to more extreme measures, okay? So basically, with a sermon like this and a sermon series, I'm giving you various guidelines, and you've got to make decisions of how you're going to apply this in your life. I can't give you a two plus two equals four answer because of the fact, you know, it's not that simple, okay? But I will show you a person here, Abraham, with the introduction, and Abraham was a man that God said to separate from his family very clearly. Notice what it says in Genesis 12, verse one. Now the Lord had said on to Abram, get thee out of thy country and from thy kindred and from thy father's house onto a land that I will show thee. So basically Abraham's told, just move away from your family. Get away from your kindred, get away from your father's house. And look, this is before the days of email and text messages and Skype and Google Hangouts or whatever. So look, when he's told to separate, it's kind of like a permanent thing that he's told to do. Just separate from your family and it's very clear that this is what God says to do. Verse two, and I will make of thee a great nation and I will bless thee and make thy name great and thou shall be a blessing. And I will bless them that bless thee and curse him that cursed thee and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed. Genesis 12 three is a very famous verse, okay? But God's promise to bless Abraham was contingent or based on if Abraham obeyed to separate from his physical family. See he's not going to be obeyed in this or he's not going to be blessed in this way that through him all families of the earth will be blessed unless he separates from his physical family. That is part of it. He must separate from his physical family and then do what God says or he's not going to be blessed in that way. Okay. Genesis number four, so Abram departed as the Lord had spoken on to him and Lot went with him and Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran. Now when you read verse four, if you're just quickly reading over this, what it sounds like is Abraham gets instructions from God and he obeys and does it. Isn't that what it sounds like when you look at verse four? That's actually not the way it happened. He eventually obeys, but he does not obey at the beginning, okay? Verse four shows he eventually obeys, but not at the beginning. Go to Acts chapter seven in your New Testament, Acts seven in your New Testament. See what it said in Genesis twelve verse four is that he departed out of Haran, but here's the thing. When God appears to him, he's not in Haran. He actually disobeys what God says and he moves to Haran with his family. He does not separate from his family. Okay, I'll show this to you. This is why you use the New Testament to shed light on the Old Testament, okay? Acts chapter seven verse one. And this also shows us as this is being mentioned in Acts chapter seven, certain things weren't explicitly written down in our Old Testament we have today, but they were known by people of God, okay? So certain things were written down in the New Testament. That doesn't mean that they did not have that knowledge beforehand, okay? Because Stephen shows knowledge of what happened with Abraham. Acts seven verse one, then said the high priest, are these things so? And he said, men and brethren, verse two, men, brethren, and fathers hearken, the God of glory appeared onto our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia before he dwelled in Haran. Now Haran is spelled differently there, but that is referring to when he departed out of Haran. Before he dwelled at Haran, God appears to him in Mesopotamia. God did not appear to him in Haran. He appeared to him in Mesopotamia and yet Abraham obeys when he leaves Haran. Why? Because he leaves Mesopotamia with his family and eventually he leaves Haran, but not at first, okay? Eventually he obeys, not at first. God appeared to him in Mesopotamia. Verse three, and said onto him, get thee out of thy country, this is God telling him this, get thee out of thy country from Mesopotamia and from thy kindred and come into the land which I shall show thee, okay? He says, I want you to come into the land that I will show thee. Notice verse four, then came he out of the land of the Chaldeans when he was in Mesopotamia and dwelt in Haran, okay? Here's the thing, that's not the land that God was talking about. He leaves Mesopotamia with his family to go somewhere where God did not tell him to go because look, he is not separated from his family. Remember, I mentioned him obeying in Genesis 12 and part of that obeying was not just moving but leaving your kindred and your father's house, okay? He does not do that though at first. He leaves from Mesopotamia with his family into Haran and he eventually obeys out of Haran, okay? But he does not do this at first. You say, why? It's hard to separate from your family. Even if God specifically says, separate from your family, basically you're never going to see him again. You're leaving to another place, you're going to be gone from your family. That's not easy to obey, okay? It's hard to do. Notice the rest of this verse, then came he out of the land of the Chaldeans and dwelt in Haran and from thence, when his father was dead, he removed into this land wherein ye now dwell. He obeys to leave his father's house once his father's dead, okay? It's pretty easy to separate from your father when he's already dead, right? I mean, that's not hard to obey. It's like, okay, separate, my dad's dead. But notice he does not obey God. He eventually leaves his kindred, but you know what? He obviously probably had a bond with his father, but God said, leave your father, leave your family, go to the land where I tell you to, he doesn't do that. In fact, he leaves from the Chaldean area of Mesopotamia and he goes to Haran with his family. Once his dad dies, then he obeys. See, Abraham could have been blessed a lot earlier in his life if he just listened to God earlier, okay? Go back to Genesis 11, Genesis 11, Genesis chapter 11. And we saw in Genesis chapter 12 where he's told to leave his father's house. But the end of Genesis 11 actually takes place after the beginning of Genesis 12, okay? Genesis 12 was kind of going to go back, but Genesis chapter 11 is going to mention something about Terah, which is the father of Abraham in verse 31. Genesis 11 verse 31. Notice this, Genesis 11 verse 31, and Terah took Abram his son and Lot the son of Haran his son's son and Sarai his daughter-in-law, his son Abraham's wife. And they went forth with them from Ur of the Chaldees to go into the land of Canaan and they came onto Haran and dwelt there. That's how it says in the beginning of verse 31, Terah takes Abram. I mean, Abram's told to leave your family and yet his dad basically makes the decisions for Abraham, right? I'm easy. I guess he's a father's boy. Obviously Abraham was a godly person. I'm just saying when you're reading this, he does not obey to leave his father. His father says, you know what? I'm taking our family and moving them here, even though Abraham basically was told to move here, not here, not to Haran, okay? Verse 32, and the days of Terah were 205 years and Terah died in Haran. So basically Terah takes their family. God appears to Abraham in Mesopotamia and then Terah, Abraham's father, takes their family to Haran, not to where Abraham was told to go. Now look, I'm assuming Abraham figured I'll kind of go halfway and obey and go with my family. But look, it didn't work for him. He didn't end up with where he needed to go because he didn't obey God. He was told to separate from his family, okay? Now turn to Ephesians five, Ephesians five. Now we'll talk about Abraham later on in the sermon. I'll show you why he was told to separate from his family, but I'm just giving you an example right off the bat with Abraham. And what I'm showing you is this, that when it comes to separating from your family, it's not an easy thing to do, even if you know this is what you're supposed to do. I mean, God directly told Abraham, separate from your family and leave, and he does not listen. Okay. And what I would say is this, there's a lot of people in churches that hear sermons and they know they should separate from their family and they don't obey that. Okay. They say, no, you know, I'm just going to spend just as much time and I'll give you three reasons why you might want to separate. But I would say this, that this is something we do need to apply to our lives. Now, look, if your family does not compromise your ability to serve God, then you don't need to separate at all. But if they're causing you not to serve God like you should, like is the situation with Abraham, you might need to separate to some degree. One reason why is this, if your family causes you to compromise your standards, they cause you to compromise your standards of what's right and what's wrong. They cause you to compromise your standards on sin and worldliness. Notice Ephesians five, verse 11, and have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. The Bible says we are supposed to have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness. Let me give you an example. If you go to a party with your family that is getting drunk and trashed, even if you're not drinking, you are having fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness. That's a great example. You're allowing sin to be in your lives. And look, when it comes to extended families and cousins, look, probably all of us have family that, you know what, they get drunk, okay? And it's like if you're in that situation, no, it is not okay for Christians to be around people getting trashed and getting drunk, okay, or people blaspheming God. But these big family reunions, you know what, that's usually what you're going to find. I would say that quite honestly, my wife and I are a big exception to this because we do not have family that drinks in terms of parents or siblings that drink. None of them do, okay? But I'm sure in the extended families, if there is a big get together, there would be some that are getting drunk. And look, the Bible says have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. How can you really reprove it if you're partaking in it? Verse 12, for it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret. The Bible says it's a shame even to speak about these things, much less when you're watching it take place. If you're not even supposed to talk about what did take place, you certainly shouldn't be there partaking in it and watching it take place. The Bible says it's a shame to even speak of those things. And look, we preached a sermon series on worldliness and you can apply this in there, okay? And let me tell you something, if you're around people getting drunk or people committing major sins, whether you're doing it or not, you're partaking in it. The Bible says it's a shame even to speak of those things, and it says which are done of them in secret because it's an embarrassment. It's something that people know is wrong, okay? Verse 13, but all things that are reproved are made manifest by the light, okay? Now the Bible says here, verse 13, it's an interesting verse, it says all things that are reproved, okay? Basically what it's saying is all things that are wrong are made manifest by the light. You say, what does that mean, okay? Well, let me give you an example. Let's say, for example, you're in your house and it's dark in the room you're in, okay? When it's dark in the room, you can't tell if it's dirty or not, right? If there's a lot of dust in the ground, you can't tell, right, if it's dark. But what if you just shine the light really bright? You get a flashlight, really shine in. All of a sudden you're like, man, I gotta clean, right? It's dirty. I gotta get rid of this. I gotta sweep up the dust and everything like that. You're gonna see all of the dirt and all of the uncleanness. What the Bible's saying is things that are wrong, things that are reproved, they are made manifest by the light. The light of God's word and the light of God as we draw closer to them. The closer you get to God, the more you're gonna see wrong in your life. I mean, isn't that true? As you become more godly, you're saying, oh man, this is wrong, this is wrong. It's being made manifest by the light. What's funny is you go to a church like this, and before you come, it's like, man, I'm pretty godly. And all of a sudden you're seeing everything preached really hard, like, oh man, I gotta change this and this and this and this. And look, I've been in the same situation, right? I mean, I changed because I went to Baptist churches and I heard preaching like this. And I was like, man, I didn't even know this was wrong. But it's made manifest by the light. And as you draw closer to God, you're really gonna see it shining in. Now let me say this. There are certain things that I believe are wrong or I would not partake in them, but it's not exactly like thou shalt not kill, okay? Certain things where I might not go to a certain place, I don't think it's right for a Christian to do that. But it's not something where it's basically like, thus saith the Lord, thou shalt not kill, where it's very black and white. It's something based on what I know from the Bible and how close I am to God. I feel like the light's being shined in and I don't think it's appropriate, and I would not do it. But when it comes to things like that, you know what, obviously I preach sermons and I give guidance and stuff like that. But I'm very careful with saying, thus saith the Lord, if God did not directly say, thus saith the Lord. Do you understand what I'm saying? There's certain things where you might say, you know what, I don't think a Christian ought to go to this place, but you don't have a verse that's black and white that proves that. That is your personal standard, okay? There's nothing wrong with having a high personal standard, but I would say this, that if you have a high personal standard, but you cannot directly two plus two equals four prove it through the Bible, it's great to keep that standard, but be very careful with pushing that standard off to somebody else, okay? I can point to verses, thou shalt not commit adultery. There's no debating it. There's no dispute, okay? But I couldn't point to a verse that says, thou shalt not eat at this restaurant because of the music they play there, okay? Now I might have that standard where there might be certain places where I say, I don't like to go to that place because I don't feel comfortable. I don't think it's right, but I'd be very careful with saying, thus saith the Lord, if God did not directly say that, okay? That is your standard by the fact that as you draw close to the light, things are being made manifest, and look, you could be right. You shouldn't do that, but I would say let people draw close to that light themselves to make those decisions, okay? All things that are approved are made manifest by the light, for whatsoever doth make manifest is light. So it's the light of God's word. It's the light is drawing close to God that will show you things that are right and things that are wrong. Now, when it comes to people getting drunk, though, and being around that and being at a party, I think it's pretty black and white because it says have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, and that is obviously people partaking in major sin. And look, that might be a reason why you want to separate from some family. And the truth is this, there's many people that have family, and I don't know in this room, maybe you do, maybe you don't, and you know what, they will just get drunk in front of you all the time, even if you ask them not to, in front of your kids. And I want you to understand something, that if our family would spend time with other relatives and even though we don't drink, our kids are seeing us spending time with people that are getting drunk every single week, basically to the kids, they're going to be like, okay, that's not that big of a deal. Do you understand what I'm saying? I mean, if you allow your kids to see this, and you're not reproving it, but you're fellow-sipping with it, what you're teaching the kids is, it's not that serious, right? And so you have to have your standard, and you don't change that standard. You put your feet in the ground and say, this is my standard, I will not partake in it, whether it's a higher standard than mine or a lower standard, whatever your standard is, you do not buckle. And I'll tell you what, if you do, you're teaching your kids, well, we don't really take what we believe that seriously. Whatever you believe, you better take seriously, okay? And let me tell you something, you need to be very careful with family that would be committing these major sins, and you're around it, because you're teaching your kids, it's really not that serious, okay? Turn to 1 John 2, 1 John 2. As you turn to 1 John 2, let me just read, the Bible says, abstain from all appearance of evil, abstain from all appearance of evil. And see, the Bible says, you know what, you should not be around things that look evil and that would look bad, the Bible says abstain from the appearance of evil, okay? And so look, there are certain things that as Christians, we should not be partaking in. I remember someone I knew in college, and you know, he did not drink, okay? And the reason why he didn't drink, he was a Christian, but it was more because of like fitness reasons, like he wanted to be in shape, so he never drank alcohol. But all of his friends drank. So basically, he would be at parties and stuff, and he would basically have like a glass full of a drink that was not beer, but he'd be pretending to drink beer in front of them, because he's trying to get along with his friends. Look, Christians should not do stuff like that. It's like, you know what, just be honest about who you are. And it's like, look, if you say it's wrong for me to drink, you should just say, I'm not going to partake in it, I'm not going to fellowship with it. And let me say this, that before I got saved when I went to college, my parents didn't drink, but I would say when I went to college, I was trying to find friends and things like that. And there were a couple times I did drink. And I remember I got saved and I was just, you know, I was like, this is not what I want to do with my life. I don't want to go out to bars. I don't enjoy it. I don't think it's right. I didn't really think about the Bible, but I just said, you know what, I'm just going to stay at home when my friends go out to bars. And that's what I did. Because I said, this is my standard. I don't think it's right. My parents didn't drink growing up. I don't think it's appropriate. I feel guilty about it. You know, I don't want to do it. And it's like, I just said, you know, I'm just not going to hang out with them. And you know, the truth is, as Christians, sometimes you have to be without the camp. And sometimes at your office, at your work, they have the parties after work and everybody goes out to the bar and you say, well, I'm going to go, but I just won't drink. Look, Christians should not partake in that. You have to be a little bit different than the world, okay? Now next week's sermon is going to kind of complete this because we're going to talk about the separation onto the church family. Because when you separate from your physical family, you need to replace that with something. And that would be the church family, okay? But look, there is a time to separate from your physical family if they cause you to compromise your standards of what's right and what's wrong. Not just with sin that's very black and white. But what about with things that are very worldly or things that you think are inappropriate? First John chapter two verse 15. First John two verse 15. Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life is not of the Father, but is of the world. Now we talked about this for several weeks and the Bible talks about things that are of the world that are not of God. As Christians, the Bible says do not love the world. And if you find yourself not caring about the Bible, not caring about serving God, not caring about reading the Bible or praying or winning souls to the Lord or anything like that, but all you care about are the things of the world and who won the Oscars, the Emmys, the Grammys, whatever the awards are here in the Philippines, I have no idea. Who won the PBA or whatever, you know, all that. If that's all you care about and you never care about reading the Bible, there's a problem there. Then you're loving the world more than you're loving God. That's what the Bible says. Turn to Proverbs 13. Proverbs 13. Yeah, look, we just talked about for several weeks about worldliness and the truth is all of us have some worldliness in our lives and all of us have some areas where we need to get more dedicated to God. But I want you to realize oftentimes what stops us from serving God is not that we don't desire to serve God. It's not that we're on the wrong church. The problem is that we have family that's preventing us from serving God like we should. That's the truth. Oftentimes family will prevent us from really serving God like we ought to serve God. They will get you to compromise your standards because you've been in that family for so long and this could be your parents, this could be your grandparents, it could be your aunts, your uncles, your cousins, but oftentimes your family will cause you to compromise your standards of right and wrong. You have a standard in your life where I will not partake in this or this or I think it's a sin or it's worldly, but they will basically always put you in that position and you always find yourself giving in to them. They're causing you to compromise your standards and you might want to separate from them. Proverbs 13 verse 20, he that walketh with wise men shall be wise, but a companion of fools shall be destroyed. And look, oftentimes that companion of fools could be referring to your family. And look, the Bible says if you walk with wise men, you walk with people that are godly, you walk with people that are serving God, do you know what you're going to find? You're also going to serve God. Over the last five weeks, we've had this lockdown and everything, but many people at our church have memorized several chapters in the book of Romans. I mean, isn't that true? But do you really believe that you would have just one day decided, I'm going to start memorizing the book of Romans? Probably not, myself included, because we're motivating each other and look, I'm not winning right now. I'm a few chapters behind, so you know what? I'm motivated, right? It's like we motivate each other to do this. Like we're not going to spend 16 weeks and memorize the entire book of Romans unless other people are helping motivate each other. And that's what a church does. You edify one another, okay? You walk with wise men. You spend time with other soul winners, you're going to be a soul winner. You spend time with people that read the Bible, you're going to read the Bible. Why? Because people will talk about the Bible. And look, when you hear people talking about something and you don't know about it, you know what it causes you to do? Man, I need to go and read that story. I want to know what they're talking about. It's like David and Goliath. I mean, who's Goliath? I've never heard about that. It's like, I've got to read that, right? I mean, when people talk about stories, and look, this happens all the time. You're at a church and you hear people talk about some king or something in the Bible, and in your mind you're just like, man, I'm kind of shaky on that story. You know what it does? It causes you to go home and say, you know what? I'm going to read that chapter. I want to find out what that story's about. You walk with wise men, you're going to be wise. You walk with fools, you're going to be destroyed. You're going to be a fool. That's what the Bible teaches. Going to Joshua 24, Joshua 24. See this is why you need church. You're not going to serve God successfully without a great church. Many people, they don't put the proper value on the importance of church. A lot of people feel like, you know what? I can just listen to sermons online and just, I don't have to be dedicated to church. I'll serve God without having a church. I guess my question would be, because many people in this room, you didn't have a great church two years ago. How much were you serving God? How much were you reading the Bible? How much were you memorizing the Bible? How much were you going soul winning? I mean, were you doing a lot more than you are now? I doubt it. Having a church and people that are motivating you, what you're going to find is, man, I'm reading the Bible more, I'm memorizing the Bible more, I'm serving God more, I'm less worldly, I love the things of God more, I'm doing more soul winning. We all need to be around other people that are helping us grow. And what I want you to understand is, if you spend all your time hanging out with people that are ungodly, you know what? It's going to cause you not to live for God. And it says, you don't have to turn there, but in 1 Corinthians 15 verse 33, it says, be not deceived, evil communications corrupt good manners. Joshua 24 verse 2, and this is the story of Terah, Joshua 24 verse 2, and forgive me if I misquote this a little bit, because my son has been helping me when I print stuff. Okay, so he gets a little bit excited. So when I print papers, he really kind of rips it out before it's done. And so I'll try my best to quote this perfectly, but it's a little bit smudged on here. So forgive me, it's not the NIV if I miss a word here, okay, I'm just having trouble reading it. All right. And so my son's doing a good job. I want to encourage him as he's trying to help, even if it's a little bit more difficult sometimes. Joshua 24 verse 2, and Joshua said unto all the people, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Your fathers dwelt on the other side of the flood in old time, even Terah, the father of Abraham. So we're talking about the father of Abraham, remember, Abraham was told to separate from his family, and specifically it mentions his father, why? The father of Abraham and the father of Nachor, and they served other gods. Was Abraham's father a believer? Doesn't appear to be, right? I mean, he appears to be serving another god, he appears to have another religion. And so Abraham is living with his dad. And guess what? When you're living with people that don't believe in Jesus Christ, you're gonna have a lot of disagreements, you're gonna have a lot of problems, okay? Now I would assume, because Abraham's a man who often has a lot of money, I'm assuming it's a situation where they have maybe a big house, and maybe even separate side houses, but that they're on the same property, okay? But I want you to understand something, an example is, my wife's extended family, they've got this big property with all these houses built on and everybody's a Catholic, and it's just like, we don't wanna live around a bunch of Catholics all the time, that just every day in this community, every single day they're gonna be talking about stuff, there's all the idols of Buddha and Jesus and Mary and whatever, it's just like, I don't think it's right to be around that, okay? And see, the Bible says about Terah, Abraham's father, that you know what? He served other gods. He didn't serve Jesus Christ, he didn't believe in Jesus Christ, and look, when you're around people that believe in a different God, that are not saved, they're gonna have different values and different beliefs in you, and you will be forced to compromise your standards when you're always around them. What you see Christians do, is they usually wanna meet people halfway to kinda give in, okay? If this is what they believe is right, and this is what their family's doing, they'll just try to meet them in the middle so they don't, you know, they can get along. Isn't that true? But you know, the truth is with family, they don't meet you in the middle. They basically say, no, no, no, this is not good enough, meet us in the middle again, meet us in the middle again. And it's just like, they just don't understand, and whether they're saved or not, quite honestly, unless they're close enough to that light where basically things that are approved are made manifest, they don't get it. They do not understand why you don't listen to the same music. They do not understand why you go soul winning every week. They do not understand why you're reading the Bible so much. They're like, man, why do you take this so seriously, right? They're trying to get you to compromise your standards oftentimes, and look, if you're in that situation where being around family or talking to them too much is causing you to compromise what you believe is right and wrong, and every single day you vex your righteous soul and you feel guilty because of your family, you might wanna practice some separation. I'm not saying not to call them for Mother's Day. I'm not saying not to call them for Father's Day. I'm not saying you can never spend time with them, but you might wanna just decide there's certain areas where, you know what, it's just too far, I just need to make some changes in my life, okay? Look, this is for you to decide. Turn to 1 Samuel 17, 1 Samuel 17. I can't make this decision for you. You've gotta look at what the Bible says and say, is my family causing me to compromise my standards? And you know what, you might need to practice some separation. I would say this, that for nearly everybody in this room, if not everybody, to some degree, we've probably had to or should practice some separation. This does not necessarily mean total separation, but it might mean, you know what, you might wanna withdraw a little bit, okay? You might wanna practice some separation because quite honestly, most of us, our families are not soul winners, okay? Most of us, our families don't memorize the book of Romans in their free time, right? For most of us, our families are probably not reading the Bible a whole lot. And if that's the case, there's a good chance you're having to compromise your standards. Now here's the thing, if you're around your family and they don't cause you to compromise your standards, then you don't need to practice any separation. If they're not causing you to feel guilty all the time and do what's wrong, they're not harming you spiritually, okay? And look, there's nothing wrong with having family that you spend time with. You know, obviously my parents live in the US, but I talk to my parents every week on Skype and I email them and stuff like that. If I live near my parents, you know what, I would see them every week, okay? My parents are Christians, they're saved, and they might not necessarily believe the exact same things as me, but I don't believe I would need to separate from them. I don't believe I'd be compromising my standards, okay, if I spent some time with them every week. But at the same time, the Bible does say, when you get married, you leave father and mother in Cleveland to your wife. So there would be some separation in the fact that we'd have our own home and our own location, but you know, it wouldn't be something where I was like, I've got to cut off all ties and never talk to my parents again. I wouldn't practice that strict of a separation. I'm not in a situation where I would need to do that, okay? My parents are saved, but here's the thing, for some of you, you might need to go to more extremes. I mean, if your family are ungodly, wicked people that are just always getting drunk, you know, your dad's a drug addict or a drug dealer, okay, it's like you might need to practice some separation because you will probably compromise your standards. And with Abraham, he's told, hey, separate from your family. Why? Because his dad believes in different gods. And I'm sure his dad was not that godly of a person when he's believing in worshiping false idols. First Samuel 17, what's another reason why you might want to separate from your family to some degree? Well, if you have to compromise your standards, point number one. Point number two, if they criticize your beliefs, okay, if you have to compromise your standards or they criticize your beliefs, you might want to separate. First Samuel 17 verse 26, and David spake to the men that stood by him, saying, what shall be done to the man that killed this Philistine, referring to Goliath? And David taketh away the reproach from Israel, for who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God? And the people answered him after this manner, saying, so shall it be done to the man that killeth him. Now, look, when you're thinking of the most famous stories in the entire Bible, outside of Jesus being born and the resurrection, dying on the cross, David and Goliath is like the most famous story, right? I mean, the worldwide flood and David and Goliath. Everybody knows David and Goliath. I grew up a sports fan. You know, I love sports. I love playing sports. I watch sports. And it's the David versus Goliath battles, right? And you know, it's the good team, the really good team versus the team that does not have a chance to win. The David versus Goliath. Everybody knows the story. Everybody loves the story. First Samuel 17 is one of the greatest chapters in the Bible. And look, this is one of the great things because David fights this battle against Goliath and he cannot physically win. It's not even possible unless God helps him win this battle. Everybody knows the story, but did you know that David's oldest brother, he tries to stop him from fighting this battle? Notice the next verse. Verse 28, in Eliab, his eldest brother heard when he spake unto the men and Eliab's anger was kindled against David. So his brother is very angry because David is fighting Goliath, okay? And he said, why camest thou down hither? Why are you here, David? You should not be here. Why camest thou down hither? And with whom hast thou left those few sheep in the wilderness? So he's criticizing David saying, David, you should be taking care of the sheep. What are you doing here, David? Now isn't it interesting how it's often family that criticizes you going soul winning? Isn't that true? It's like you want to serve God, you want to go soul winning, you want to read the Bible and it's your family that's criticizing your beliefs. That is often the case. And look, I have seen people that were serving God and love God, but because of the fact they practice no separation with family, they ended up fading out of church, okay? And I would hate that to happen to someone in this room or someone at our church. The truth is that for a lot of us, if you have family that is always criticizing your beliefs, you might want to practice some real separation. That doesn't mean you can never talk to them, but you might want to separate to some degree, okay? Look, I want you to understand something. You are not obligated to remain best friends with your family until the day you die, okay? And I feel like a lot of Christians feel like, it's like, well, and look, I get it. And I love my parents. I have great parents. They did a great job raising me. But I want you to understand, like if you've got ungodly parents, there's nowhere in the Bible that says you must remain really close to ungodly parents that are mocking what you believe and causing you to compromise your standards. No, you should separate from them, okay? That's the reality of it. You have a brother or sister that just hates God and is just blaspheming God. Let's say they're a sodomite or something like that. Look, you should not be spending your time hanging out with them. They mock what you believe. They criticize what you believe. You know what? You've got your church family, okay? Yes, you ought to be close to family. But let me tell you something. Church family ought to be the number one thing. And praise the Lord if you've got family members, physical family members that love God. But look, if they don't love God and they're criticizing what you believe, you might want to practice some separation. This is what's happening with Eliab here. He says in verse 28, after that, I know thy pride in the naughtiness of thine heart. For thou art come down that thou mightest see the battle. And David said, what have I now done? I mean, Eliab's just like, you know, you're an arrogant person. Why are you here? David's like, what have I now done? What did I do? I didn't do anything wrong. Is there not a cause? And David's saying, is there not a reason why I'm here? I mean, shouldn't somebody fight this battle? Nobody's willing to fight Goliath and you're mad at me being the one person that's willing to fight this battle. Look, this is true with churches too. When you have a church that preaches hard against sin and takes real strong stands, you'll have the other Baptist churches criticizing that one church for doing that. I mean, that's what I saw going to Verity Baptist Church. And I'm sure, you know, the same things with what we preach. There's a lot of Baptist churches that don't like us and they think we're mean and harsh. It's like, well, at least somebody's fighting these battles. At least somebody is willing to preach the whole Bible. And yet you have other Baptist churches. They would criticize us for taking strong stands and preaching what the Bible says. That's what you see with Eliab. Go to verse 17, verse 17. I find it funny the criticism that Eliab gives David because he says, you know, who did you leave those sheep with? And the Bible actually tells us, and he's like, why did you come to the battle and who did you leave those sheep with? Well, notice what it says in verse 17. And Jesse said unto David his son, take now for thy brethren an ephah of this parched corn and these 10 loaves and run to the camp of thy brethren and carry these 10 cheeses unto the captain of the thousand and look how thy brethren fare and take their pledge. So Eliab says to David, why didn't you come to the battle? Well, our dad told me to go to the battle and I'm obeying my father because I respect and love my father. OK, that's the answer to the question. Why are you here? Well, our dad told me to go. I mean, he throws out this wild accusation. Why are you here at the battle? You shouldn't be here. It's like his dad told him to go to the battle and bring supplies. That's why he's there. The other accusation Eliab made was who did you leave those sheep with? Well, notice what it says in verse 19. Now Saul and they and all the men of Israel were in the valley of Elah fighting with the Philistines and David rose up early in the morning and left the sheep with a keeper. So who did David leave those sheep with? Well, he left the sheep with a keeper. David made sure that he did take part of his responsibility in verse 20. So his dad says, go to the battle. And David goes above and beyond and says, you know what? I've got this job of taking care of the sheep. I also want to make sure there's someone left here to take care of the sheep. So look, David did exactly what he was told to do. Why is he at the battle? Because his dad told him to go. Who did he leave the sheep with? With a keeper to take care of them. Okay, he did everything right. And it's funny how his elder brother's criticizing him. And it's the same way when you serve God. You read the Bible, you go to church, you memorize the Bible, you go soul winning, and then you've got your Christian or Christian family that's bashing you and criticizing you and calling you arrogant and prideful. Isn't that true? Isn't that what takes place? Isn't that what other Baptists do to us? Isn't that what some family will do to you? Why? Because of the fact when you're serving God, people are going to be envious. Okay, turn to 1 Samuel 16, and I'm going to turn there myself. I'm going to add some verses, spend a little bit more time. Because, you know, I'll be honest, I believe Eliab was very envious because in the previous chapter, David was selected to be king, not Eliab. It's kind of interesting. I mean, if I was David and I don't have a brother, but if I had a brother and my brother's criticizing me, and I had just been declared the next king, I'd be like, listen, bro, listen, bro. It's like, I'm the next king. Who are you to talk down to me? It's like, I'm going to be ordering you around here in a couple of weeks. It's like, you better be nice to me, buddy. And so David was just elected king in 1 Samuel 16. So it's kind of like, who are you, Eliab, to criticize him when he's the one who's going to be the ruler? Okay, but I want you to notice in 1 Samuel chapter 16, let me go down to verse, hold on one second. Verse number seven, it says, or verse number six, verse six. So Samuel selecting a king, 1 Samuel 16, verse six. And it came to pass when they were come that he looked on Eliab and said, surely the Lord's anointed is before him. So when Samuel sees Eliab, which is the one who criticized him in 1 Samuel 17, immediately when he sees Eliab, he's like, man, this must be the king. Now, I'm assuming Eliab was probably very good looking, probably very tall, probably like Saul was very tall, head and shoulders above anyone. He just looked like, man, this guy is going to be the leader, okay? So I don't know if he said this out loud and Eliab heard it and is thinking, man, I'm going to be king. And then all of a sudden, God tells Samuel, no, no, no, that's not going to be the king. So I don't know if Eliab heard that or not, if it was said out loud or not. But Eliab, I'm sure he realized, I'm the one. I'm the elder brother, I'm the oldest, which usually would be the one selected king, he's probably good looking, tall, smart or whatever. Verse seven, but the Lord said unto Samuel, look not on his countenance, basically his outward appearance, all right, or on the height of his stature. So obviously, Eliab's probably pretty tall, the height of his stature, because I've refused him, for the Lord seeth not as man seeth, for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart, okay? Verse eight, then Jesse called Abinadab and made him pass before Samuel, and he said, neither hath the Lord chosen this. Then Jesse made Shammah to pass by, and he said, neither hath the Lord chosen this. Again, Jesse made seven of his sons to pass before Samuel, and Samuel said unto Jesse, the Lord hath not chosen these. And so all of the sons pass before except David. You say, where is David? Verse 11, and Samuel said unto Jesse, are here all thy children? And he said, there remaineth yet the youngest, and behold, he keepeth the sheep. And Samuel said unto Jesse, send and fetch him, for we will not sit down till he come hither. Now, it's interesting in 1 Samuel 16, a king is being selected, and let's say you are a family of like eight brothers, and you're told that one of your family's gonna be the next king. Wouldn't you wanna be there? It's like, man, I have a chance of being the king. But the one person who doesn't go is David. Why? Cuz David says, my responsibility is just taking care of the sheep. I can't leave my job to go to some more glorious job. He says, you know what, this is what God has given me. And isn't it interesting how God looks on the inside? And he looks at David and says, David's not trying to be some big leader. He just cares about the job he's given, and who does God choose? He chooses David. Why? Cuz David was a person who just always took care of the sheep. He just did the job he was supposed to do. So it's just kind of funny that in 1 Samuel 17, Eliab criticizes him and says, who's taking care of the sheep? It's like David's whole life, he always made sure the sheep were taken care of. Look, Eliab's just throwing out a wild accusation, why? He's envious at David. He knows what he's doing is wrong. He's mad he's not the king, and he throws out a wild accusation. And here's the truth, you will have family in your life that will criticize what you believe. And oftentimes, their criticism are just wild accusations that make no sense. I mean, you spend your time going soul winning, you have no love. It's like, that doesn't make any sense. It's like, if we have no love, why are we spending hours going soul winning every week, okay? It doesn't make any sense whatsoever, but sometimes your family will throw out wild accusations, all right? Turn to Matthew 12, Matthew 12. I mean, people would look at our church and they would say, you're a hateful church, and here's the truth. The Bible says there's a time to love and a time to hate. It's like, yeah, you know, we should have love and hate in our lives, okay? You love what's good, you hate what's bad. You love the flowers, you hate the weeds. You love little innocent children, then you ought to hate pedophiles. Amen. Doesn't that make sense? I mean, I love little innocent children. And I hate the fact that little children are molested, so you know what happens? Then you're gonna hate what's harming them. You love the flowers, you're gonna hate the weeds. It just makes sense. So yeah, you know what? You preach a sermon like, you know, children of the whore, like the first sermon, that's what the Bible said in Revelation 17. What do you want me to call that sermon? The mother of harlots, okay? So the harlots are children of the great whore. So I could have said the children of the great whore instead of the children of the whore. That's what it says in Revelation 17. But people will say that's a very hateful sermon. That's just what the Bible says. And look, there's more aspects to God than just love. Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, the Bible says. What areas do your family sometimes criticize what you believe? Well, some areas they might criticize what you believe is, they might criticize your beliefs about the LGBT. I mean, isn't that a big area where you're against them and you say, well, the Bible has the death penalty in the book of Leviticus and they're wicked people, they're destroying our country. And it's like, no, I don't find Vice Pong eat funny and they think he's the greatest thing and it's like, what's the big deal? And it's like, they will criticize what you believe. It's funny because usually we try to get along, because the Bible says we should try to get along with every man and be at peace with people. Usually we don't criticize what they believe, but oftentimes that family that you should separate from, they criticize what you believe. That's the reality. Or how about this, how about when it comes to vaccinations, okay? Now look, when it comes to being a parent, everyone is welcome to make their own choices of what they do with their kids, okay? Now here's the thing, our kids have not been vaccinated. I do not believe in vaccinations personally. And you say, why don't you believe in that? Because I don't believe in injecting something unclean in your body when the Bible says touch not the unclean thing. Now there's many reasons why, but what I would say is this, that if you are against vaccinations, what you're going to find is often your family basically tries to force you to vaccinate your kids. And it's like, well, wait a minute. Now look, I was vaccinated as a kid and that was my parents' choice and that's fine, okay? But obviously when it comes to our kids, we make our choice with how we raise our kids. And whatever kids that God has blessed you with, you make that choice, okay? I preach sermons and I give advice and give my opinion and it's up to everybody to basically make their decisions based on what they hear. And I will not tell you how to raise your kids, just as I wouldn't want someone to tell me how to raise my kids. But is it not true with family that if you don't do things exactly how everyone else does, they basically will try to force you to do it? It's like, you're not vaccinating your kids, what's wrong with you? Or another area is this, homeschooling. I was homeschooled starting in middle school, so I have a big familiarity with that. Now right now, the government is telling people to homeschool their kids, so it's a very interesting situation, okay? So we think homeschooling is great at this church. And you're welcome to basically make your decisions. But I would say this, that if you decide to homeschool your kids, oftentimes family will criticize that decision. And it's just like, well, these are our kids, okay? Or when it comes to things like the post-Trib pre-wrath rapture, which we believe. This is especially true with Baptists. If you don't believe in a pre-Trib rapture, they think you're evil and wicked. They criticize what you believe. It's like other Baptists will criticize you, and it's like, well, you're saying God will just, and I've heard pre-Trib people say this. You're saying God would just set all of his children inside of a building and then set it on fire? And it's just like, no, that's not what we're saying, because it's not God who's pouring out his wrath on his children. It's the Antichrist. But yes, we are saying the Antichrist will persecute believers. But Baptists would hear us preach through Revelation and say that church is a heretical church. It's heresy to say the pre-Trib rapture is not true. It's like, well, show me your verse for the pre-Trib rapture. But is it not true that sometimes you'll have family, especially religious family, that will criticize the things you believe from the word of God, okay? And if that's the case where your family is causing you to compromise your standards, or they're always criticizing your beliefs, you might want to practice some separation. Now, you're in Matthew 12, let me say this though, that when it comes, well, I'll save this for the next point, Matthew 12. And so the last point, the first point was this, when your family will cause you to compromise your standards, when your family criticizes your beliefs, or when your family complains about your dedication to church. So they cause you to compromise, they criticize, and they complain about how you're dedicated to church, okay? Matthew 12, verse 46. Matthew 12, verse 46. Matthew chapter 12, verse 46. While he had talked to the people, this is Jesus basically preaching a sermon. Behold, his mother and his brethren stood without desiring to speak with him. So basically, Jesus is preaching a sermon, he's talking, and then all of a sudden, his mom and his brothers show up. It would be like if I'm preaching a sermon, and all of a sudden, my parents come in, and my family, and they say, hey, we want you to stop preaching, we want to talk to you. It's like, I'm kind of busy right now, I'm kind of doing something right now. It's like, mom, why don't you just join the service? Brothers, why don't you come listen to the sermon? I mean, why wasn't his family there? Mary was a very godly lady, but why was she not listening to the sermon herself? I mean, if she has time to come here and talk to Jesus, why is she not there in the service, okay? And so they come desiring to speak with him, verse 47. Then one said on to him, behold, thy mother and thy brethren stand without desiring to speak with thee. But he answered and said on to him, that told him, who is my mother? And who are my brethren? And so Jesus makes the interesting phrase here in verse 48 where he says, who is my mom? Who are my brothers? Verse 49, and he stretched forth his hand toward his disciples and said, behold my mother and my brethren. For whosoever shall do the will of my father which is in heaven, the same as my brother and sister and mother. And you know what Jesus is saying? He's saying, my church family is more important to me than my physical family. Now there's no question that Jesus loved his physical family. And there's nothing wrong with you loving your physical family and talking to them. And nothing wrong if you go out to eat with them every day, if they live nearby or whatever, and every single week you spend some time together. There's nothing wrong with that. But Jesus had a line in the sand where he says, hey, I have no problem with having dinner with my mom and my brethren. Even though his brethren weren't saved, he had no problem spending time with them. But the problem is when they cross that line, and basically they're criticizing his dedication to church at this point. And is it not true with family that they often times will try to get you to do things on Sunday? Cuz church is just not that important to a lot of people. Now it's important to us and we say, hey, I'd love to hang out on Saturday. I'd love to hang out on Thursday night. I'd love to hang out on Tuesday. What about Wednesday night? It's like, no, I go to church on Wednesday night. Can't you change that? It's like, why can't you just change it for this one thing? Why can't you just have church on Thursday or whatever? They try to get you to change. They criticize your dedication to church, okay? I want you to realize, and look, I don't know of a problem at our church, but I just want you to realize that when people criticize our church, they're kind of criticizing me, right? When they criticize the beliefs of our church or complain of your dedication, they're also kind of criticizing me. And look, I've been at churches where people criticize my pastor. And it's like sometimes I cut them off and said, here, I want you to understand something. My pastor is also my personal friend. I do not appreciate you criticizing my friends. And see, people think, it's okay, I can criticize. Look, if they're criticizing this church, they're also kind of criticizing me and Pastor Jimenez as an extension as well, okay? And so look, if your family is causing you to compromise your standards, they criticize your beliefs, they complain about your dedication to church or how you're always coming to church and soul winning and things like that, you might want to practice a separation. You say, Brother Stuckey, didn't Jesus come to bring everybody together and to bring family together? Matthew 10, verse 34. Let's see if that's true. Matthew 10, verse 34. Matthew chapter 10, verse 34. Matthew chapter 10, verse 34. Think not that I am come to send peace on earth. I came not to send peace, but a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father and the daughter against her mother and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a man's foes shall be they of his own household. See, the Bible says, Jesus said, I've come to set a man at variance against his father. He says, I didn't come to just make you to be so close to your family when they don't love God and you love God. He says, no, I came to set a man at variance against his family, is what he's saying. Verse 37, he that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me. And he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And he that taketh not his cross and followeth after me is not worthy of me. He that findeth his life shall lose it, and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it. Now, in these verses, he's not talking about salvation, because salvation is believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. He's speaking to people that are believers, but he's saying, you know what, if you're not willing to follow me, and you always have this excuse for why you're not willing to serve God, you're not worthy then to be a follower. It's like you can't say you're going all out to serve God if you're not, right? I mean, if God tells you to be dedicated to the things of God and you just refuse to do that, you know what, you're not worthy of Jesus. Those are not my words. Those are the words of Jesus Christ. And so what did we talk about in the sermon? What we talked about, you know what, if you're forced to compromise your standards, you might want to practice some separation. If your family criticizes what you believe, you might want to practice some separation. And if they complain, like that Verity Baptist Church, why do you have to go this far to church? Why can't you go to the one next door? That church is hateful. What's wrong with this other Baptist church? You know what, you might want to practice some separation. And if you're not willing to practice some separation, you know what you're going to end up finding? You're probably going to start compromising a lot more than you really want to. Okay, now let me just end with this. When it comes to separating from family, this is something that you've got to make your personal choice of how much should you separate and how close you want to be to family. And here's the thing, we don't have the same family. My parents are not your parents. My siblings or my sister are not your siblings, right? You have your siblings, your brothers, your sisters. You've got to make that choice. And I can't make that choice for you. Okay, you've got to look at what the Bible says and decide how close do I want to be with them? Look, this is something that's a pretty common question that people ask. Somebody asked me just a couple days ago about separating from their family and asked me for advice on what they should do. And I told them I was going to preach this sermon and hopefully it was helpful to them. But at the end of the day, when it comes to making a decision like this, this is an individual thing, okay? But I will say this, that there are many people that just are not able or not willing to practice separation and it caused them not to live for God. Abraham was a great example. I mean, didn't we clearly see in Genesis 12, and I encourage you, read Genesis 12, read Acts 7, read the end of Genesis 11, what you're going to clearly see is Abraham does not obey the commandment until his father dies. Why? Abraham was just a little bit too close to his family. And look, I love my parents. I wish my parents did live nearby and spend time with them. I love my parents. I wish I could see all my nephews and nieces and things like that. But I want you to understand, if you know God wants you to do something, you cannot allow your family to prevent you from serving God. You've got to look at what the Bible says, make your decision. But look, the Bible never tells you you have to be best friends with your brother until the day you die. I mean, you remember the story of the Bible with Jacob and Esau? Remember how Jacob and Esau were at enmity with one another, and then all of a sudden they finally see each other after a while when Esau wanted to kill Jacob? And then all of a sudden Jacob's worried, oh man, Esau's probably going to want to kill me again. And then all of a sudden, basically it's the exact opposite. Esau gets there and he hugs his brother, he misses his brother. And then all of a sudden Esau basically wants to be like best buds. He wants to hang out all the time. And Jacob just keeps making excuses like, well, you know, I don't know, we'll see. And so look, that is what we have to do sometimes as believers. Now, I don't know if Esau was saved or not, but Jacob just realized, you know what? It's just probably not best for me to be that close to Esau. And it's the same thing with our lives as well. Sometimes you must practice some separation from your physical family. Let's close in a word of prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for allowing us to be here today and help us to apply this to our lives, God, including myself. Help us to look at our situation, whether it's with parents or brothers or sisters or cousins or aunts or uncles or grandparents or whatever. And help us to figure out, you know, how close should we be to our family, God? Obviously, you know, we love our family. You know, we love our parents. We love our siblings. And, you know, but there are some times we do need to practice some separation, God, and help all of us to look at our situation and help us realize that if our family is causing us to compromise our standards and they're always criticizing our beliefs and complaining about our dedication to church and things like that, that we might want to practice some separation. We pray this all in Jesus' name. Amen.