jan06



	Word of Prophecy Fellowship		January-February 2006

				THE GOOD NEWS - LETTER
				THE GOOD NEWS - LETTER

	PEER PRESSURE Part 1 of 2 Abridged by Ray Pringle, Jr.
	The word "peer" has several different meanings. You can peer into space, or you can peer through a microscope or a peep hole, but this message is about another kind of "peer." It refers to someone who is one of your contemporaries...one of your equals. Peer pressure is pressure from somebody that is close to you. WHERE DOES IT COME FROM? I want to begin with a scripture found in Matthew 12:46-50. "While he yet talked to the people, behold, his mother and his brethren stood without, desiring to speak with him. Then one said unto him, Behold, thy mother and thy brethren stand without, desiring to speak with thee. But he answered and said unto him that told him, Who is my mother? and who are my brethren? 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 is my brother, and sister, and mother." For an expansion of the thought that Jesus expressed here so beautifully, this graphic illustration of relative involvement or disturbance, Jesus spoke of the same event in Mark 3:33-35. "And he answered them, saying, Who is my mother, or my brethren? And he looked round about on them which sat about him, and said, Behold my mother and my brethren! For whosoever shall do the will of God, the same is my brother, and my sister, and mother." That means we have some pretty close kinfolks in the Lord, and it makes them closer than blood. After all, flesh and blood cannot enter the Kingdom of God, so why are we always worried about flesh and blood? Everybody has kinfolks that they have to deal with, and we may not like what Jesus said about our relatives, but that's the way it is, ladies and gentleman! Peer pressure comes from our family and our friends, our kinsmen or relatives. The very startling thing about this matter is that the devil can use them more effectively than anybody else to put pressure on you, so that you would deviate from the service that God requires of you. Your deviations, your failures, your lack of success they do not come because of pressure from somebody down the street, or the pressure of a person you don't know very well. Whenever you fail God, whenever you defer your payments to the Lord, whenever you decide to keep God's money, whenever you decide not to read your Bible or go to church faithfully, whenever you decide to do something that is worldly in its intent or content, most likely it is because of peer pressure! Somebody that you have confidence in is putting the tag on you. They have whispered something to you. It is usually a `sweet nothing,' but somehow it affected you the wrong way, and that peer pressure wanting their confidence, wanting their friendship was more important to you than having favor with God, or having favor with the people that will walk with God and pay the price, even if it means losing their friends. LOSING FRIENDS



	I remember reading a letter last Friday which came from a lady who lives somewhere up north, and listens to our radio broadcast. She said that she had received one of our books, Per-Versions of the Bible, and went on to explain, "I have five friends who are Charismatic, and I got them together and read to them out of your book. The longer I read, the madder they got. After a few minutes, they were so mad they were climbing the wall!" She concluded," Brother Pringle, I lost my five friends today, and I am going to have to find some new ones." Well, isn't that wonderful! I'd like to grab the flag, and get out in front of her house and demonstrate, and say "Hallelujah!" She gave up five old goats, but God will give her five lambs or sheep instead. Who gives a hoot about losing some old boneheaded friends? Lose them! Let them go. The world's greatest separator is the truth, and if you tell them the truth, you won't have to leave they will leave, and then you can rejoice. Didn't Jesus say this, in Luke 6:22-23? "Blessed are ye, when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you from their company, and shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man's sake. Rejoice ye in that day, and leap for joy: for, behold, your reward is great in heaven: for in the like manner did their fathers unto the prophets." When cop-out Christians succumb to peer pressure, we often hear them make the excuse, "Oh, I'm so weak! People just push me all around." Old jellyfish! This past week, while I was fishing down in Cortez with my son Chris and our helper Dominic, we saw a lot of jellyfish come into our net. They were big old rascals! But when we pulled up the net, they wouldn't be there! The jellyfish would strain right on through. That's how a lot of Christians are you can never pin them down, and they are never stablished: there is always someone pushing them. This is what Paul meant in Ephesians 4:11-14, when he said "that we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive." God wants you to be stablished, settled, and sober. Settle down! Quit saying, "I'm weak." The prophet Joel cried out and said, "Let the weak say, I am strong!" (Joel 3:10). The weak must cry out through Christ, I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me! BREAK THROUGH! Peer pressure is when your Mama or your Daddy, Bud, Sis, husband or wife, your neighbors or your relatives come out and try to push you around and deter you, or make you defer to go on with the Lord and march the march of faith victoriously. The devil will use their influence to turn you aside from wholly following the Lord thy God, or to cause you to conform to some worldly rationalization, by telling you that God does not care about your dress, or your mannerisms, or your pleasures. And then you are going to do one of three things: you are either going to break out and get away from serving God, or break down and submit to their influence; or break through, and get away from them! Don't break down and fall down before some peer, or relative, or someone who is trying to deter you from following holiness! You have to break through, and you have to do it by faith. In II Samuel 23, you read of the faith of David's three mighty men, Adino, Eleazar, and Shammah. In the midst of a battle they overheard David say that he wanted a drink of water from the well near his home in Bethlehem. That well had been dug by his forefather, Jacob, and he loved the water that came from it. What did those three mighty men do? Although the Philistines were everywhere, those three broke through and got David that jug of water. They broke through enemy lines to get it, and then had to break through all over again to bring it back! They didn't break down, they didn't break out they broke through. Now, which one are you going to do? I am going to break through! Most people break down or break out, but Faith always makes you break through. When David prepared to fight Goliath, what did he have to face? Peer pressure! As soon as he came to where the army of Israel had encamped against the Philistines, and heard the giant make his challenge, he asked the men that stood by, "What shall be done to the man that killeth this Philistine, and taketh away the reproach from Israel? for who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God?" (I Samuel 17:26). But there were his older brothers, giving him the "rah, rah, rah, sis boom bah," and campaigning against him like a bunch of high school cheerleaders rooting for the wrong team. You can't beat him! Who do you think YOU are? We know the naughtiness of your heart go on back to the sheep. What are you doing out here? Trying to show off? David replied, "Is there not a cause?" and turned, and walked away from them. He broke through with faith! David had to overcome his relatives;



	and everybody else that has ever moved anywhere with God and walked the march of faith has likewise had to overcome pressure from their peers. David did not back off and wait for the giant to attack. He grabbed his slingshot and ran to meet the giant he attacked! OUR RESPONSE Should we wait until the adversary breaks through upon us? No! We break through first, and meet the devil unawed and unmoved by his threats and cajoling, and all the braggadocio that he comes against us with. Remember, there are people right among God's people who are fainthearted and many times backslidden; and when you listen to their faintheartedness, it is going to rub off on you. When they see you giving your tithes and offerings, they tell you, "Oh, you can't do that!" But if you are a man or woman of faith, you will say to your wife or husband, "Yes, honey, we can do this! The devil said we ought not to do it, but we are going to trust God and do it anyhow!" The devil is a liar did you know that? Jesus said he was a liar and the father of lies. You ought to say to him, "Hey, devil, if you don't shut up (Grandma, Grandpa, whoever you are), I'm going to give more than just my tithes and offerings to the Lord I'll give half my income!" If you want to silence your critics, break through right in their presence and tell them, You're not stopping me from going on with God! RECOGNIZING PRESSURE Peer pressure is not going to come from someone who is an enemy: it is going to come from a friend. David had more problems besides that giant and his brothers. He had plenty of peer pressure, and he writes about it in very vivid detail, in Psalm 55:12-14. "For it was not an enemy that reproached me; then I could have borne it: neither was it he that hated me…but it was thou, a man mine equal, my guide, and mine acquaintance." Look at who is trying to harm you, and slander you, and hinder you. Paul said in I Thessalonians 2:18, "once and again…Satan hindered us," but how does Satan hinder us? Who can Satan use best? Your peers your family your neighbors your relatives! They are the ones that God allows the devil to use. The devil even used Peter to try to stop Jesus from going to the cross. Peter said, Lord, you are not going to go to that cross! You are not going to let those men crucify you. Jesus replied, "Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offence unto me: for thou savorest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men." (Matthew 16:23). Jesus was born into this world to suffer and die, yet here Peter is trying to hinder Him from going to the cross, and to stop Him from fulfilling the purpose for which He was born! A CHRISTIAN'S DESTINY We were all born with a purpose for our lives, equally with Jesus Christ. God put us in this world to fulfill a mission, a destiny that you and I are obligated to carry out to the fullest extent, if we want to get the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. There is a prize in this race, but we do not all get the same prize. We are rewarded every man according to his works, and it has to be works of faith. Faith-works! Works will never save men unless they are the works of faith. As James said, "Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar? Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect?" (James 2:21-22). It is not by the works that you do naturally it is by the faith-works that result from you breaking through and believing God, walking with God, and obeying God! Peer pressure is going to keep a lot of folks out of heaven and a lot more from getting a reward in the kingdom of heaven. God will give us grace to be stronger than that weakness or temptation in our life, if we will seek Him to have that strength. You are not going to get it just because you sit around and weakly wish for it. It comes by seeking Him, and striving to please Him. Jesus said, "Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven." (Matthew 7:21). When I was praying the other day, this song we often sing came to mind: I have forsaken all to follow Jesus, Trusting in him to supply my every need; Laying aside the weight that would beset me, Striving to please my Lord in word and deed. And that is the only way you are going to please God! You have to strive to please Him.



	STUMBLINGBLOCKS We are living in a world where adversaries among our peers are part of God's plan. Jesus said, "it must needs be that offences come." (Matthew 18:7). God puts stumblingblocks right in the middle of his people! Moses made that very plain in the 13^th chapter of Deuteronomy, warning Israel that the stumblingblocks in the midst of God's people would include false prophets and false brethren. A brother or sister can betray you! They can bring you down, if you hearken to their soft words and listen to them whisper `sweet nothings.' I don't want anybody whispering to me! If you have anything to say, say it forcefully. Job cried out in Job 6:25, "How forcible are right words." If you have something to say that is truthful, don't whisper it. Nothing but a bunch of deviltry begins when you start whispering. "A whisperer separateth chief friends," Solomon said in Proverbs 16:28. Quit that whispering! You see, there are two things that you have to overcome: the first thing is that old human nature that the devil wants to take control of, to make you a stumblingblock; and second thing is you becoming a whisperer, or a talebearer, and a busybody. The apostle Paul wrote about this in I Timothy 5:13-14. "Having damnation, because they have cast off their first faith. And withal they learn to be idle, wandering about from house to house; and not only idle, but tattlers also and busybodies, speaking things which they ought not." Slander is one of the gravest problems among God's people. Many times it gets to be an epidemic, when some members of the congregation break out and become liars, telling everyone what "he said" or "she said," and repeating what somebody told them something which was not even true to begin with. Let's get down to business with God, and cut out this mess of listening to every acquaintance, or every brother or sister in the Lord. You have to be able to separate truth from error; you have to be able to separate a whisperer from someone who is trying to edify you. And you have to remember that right here in the midst of us, God has put stumblingblocks. In Luke 17:1-2, Jesus talked about the causes of stumbling among his people. "It is impossible but that offences will come; but woe unto him [or her] through whom they come! It were better for him [or her] that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he cast into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones." Do you want to be one of those that God allows to cause His people to stumble and then at your end, face the prospect that God is going to drown you with a millstone? There are plenty of Christians like that, who are almost like brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed; and there are other Christians who, because of this situation, want to take revenge on them and that is equally wrong. Taking revenge brings you right down to the level of the stumblingblock. A GOOD ATTITUDE Before Christ, there were three great philosophers in the Greek Empire that preceded the Roman Empire: probably the most famous is Socrates. Aristotle is next, and then Plato. But Plato is considered to be more genuine than most philosophers, because his philosophy was more oriented to the Bible than most concepts of other philosophers that we know of in this modern age. When Plato was told that people were criticizing him and slandering him all over the Athenian society, he just walked on calmly. His protégé asked him, "What do you intend to do about this?" "Oh, nothing," he replied. "I am just going to continue to live in such a way that no one will believe it." Plato walked quietly on with his dignity and poise unruffled. In I Peter 2:21-23, Peter writes about the unusual stance that Jesus took whenever he was criticized, slandered, or maligned. "For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps: who did no sin, neither was guile [deceit or double-dealing] found in his mouth: who, when he was reviled [slandered, maligned, lied on], reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him [the Father] that judgeth righteously." He didn't get all shook up, and start heaping epithets and all kinds of terrible remarks berating his persecutors or his prosecutors, and the Bible says we are supposed to follow his steps. To be continued...



	Word of Prophecy Newsletter Published by: Word of Prophecy Fellowship P O Box 10200, Jacksonville, FL 32247 WWW.WordOfProphecy.org Editor Bro. Ray Pringle, Jr. an ordained minister of the Calvary Chapel Church of God, Inc. Associate Editor ... June Carpenter Copyrighted - All rights reserved