TOXIC: Anything containing POISONOUS material capable of causing SICKNESS or even DEATH.
Proverbs 25:26 (NIV)
26 Like a muddied spring or a polluted well
are the righteous who give way to the wicked.
3 things we should remember when looking at Toxic Influences…
1. We have to acknowledge that a little bit of POISON goes a long way.
1 Corinthians 5:6-7 (NIV)
6 Your boasting is not good. Don’t you know that a little yeast leavens the whole batch of dough? 7 Get rid of the old yeast, so that you may be a new unleavened batch—as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.
James 1:14-15 (NCV)
14 But people are tempted when their own evil desire leads them away and traps them. 15 This desire leads to sin, and then the sin grows and brings death.
2. Just because everyone DOES IT, it doesn’t make it RIGHT.
Romans 12:2 (MSG)
Place Your Life Before God
12 1-2 So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.
Matthew 7:13-14 (TLB)
13 “Heaven can be entered only through the narrow gate! The highway to hell[a] is broad, and its gate is wide enough for all the multitudes who choose its easy way. 14 But the Gateway to Life is small, and the road is narrow, and only a few ever find it.
3. Just because I COULD, doesn’t mean I SHOULD.
1 Corinthians 6:12 (NCV)
Use Your Bodies for God’s Glory
12 “I am allowed to do all things,” but not all things are good for me to do. “I am allowed to do all things,” but I will not let anything make me its slave.
1 Thessalonians 5:21-22 (NKJV)
21 Test all things; hold fast what is good. 22 Abstain from every form of evil.
Romans 6:23 (NCV)
23 The payment for sin is death. But God gives us the free gift of life forever in Christ Jesus our Lord.