Ron Hutchcraft Ministries - Staying in Mint Condition - #6405

Friday, July 29, 2011

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Teenage boys aren't known primarily for their neatness and organization, as you probably know. When my oldest son was that creature called "a teenage boy," he had one area that defied the messy stereotype. I said just one area, right? It was his baseball card collection.

Oh, everything else may have been in a state of total chaos, but oh not the baseball cards. They were neatly put away in plastic holders, filed in notebooks, categorized. Why? Well, as he said, "Dad, they're only valuable if they're in mint condition. I want to keep these cards in mint condition."

Well, that is true. You take special steps when you have something of value. You care for something much more carefully when you realize the value of it being in mint condition.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Staying in Mint Condition."

Our word for today from the Word of God is about that. It's found in 2 Corinthians 6 , and I'll begin reading in verse 16: "For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said, 'I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God and they will be my people. Therefore, come out from them and be separate' says the Lord. 'Touch no unclean thing and I will receive you. I will be a Father to you, and you will be My sons and daughters' says the Lord Almighty."

That little phrase, "come out from them and be separate." I grew up on that phrase. They talked a lot about that at my church. We heard about, "I don't smoke, and I don't chew, and I don't go with the girls who do." And we had a pretty good list of worldly things we weren't supposed to do. And most of us went along with it. But it was a fairly negative thing. Oh, we knew all the things we were against.

Now, there's no question that separation from the world in which we lived was our calling then and it's our calling today as followers of Christ. To be different from the world in which we live, saying "no" to the things that everyone around us may be saying "yes" to. But there are two extremes on this issue of separation. On the one hand, you have Christians who have a rather negative faith. It's all don'ts and their children often grow up with postponed rebellion. They can't wait to get out and get on with what they really want to do. On the other hand, you have people with a careless faith; afraid that they might be too narrow; they don't want to have too many don'ts in their life. They've got to show how "free" they are.

Well, I think there's a separateness taught here that does not breed resentment or rebellion. It's so positive! Remember, separation in the Bible is always based on specialness. God says, "Be separate because you're My people...You're my sons, my daughters. You're My kids; you're royalty. You are so valuable that you're worth protecting from pollution."

Okay, maybe others can throw away their lives, and their bodies, and their morality; maybe they can cheapen themselves; maybe they can get dirty. But not me! I'm God's kid. See, this affects my language, it affects the friends I choose, the music I fill up my heart with, the websites I go to, how I protect my virginity, my purity, where I go. Not because I'm the prisoner of some religious rules or some don'ts. I'm not a prisoner; I'm a prince. You're a prince or a princess.

Let's not be afraid to preach a separated life. Let's not be afraid to live a life that's separated from any kind of sinful lifestyle. But let's always present it as God does. It's a positive, not a negative.

You're too special for that junk. Don't settle for anything less than staying in mint condition.