is that the enemy is after you and he's after two things in two ways is he's
after you that I want to focus in on is first off he wants to create isolation
in you and surround you with toxic people those are the two ways that I
want to focus there's a whole lot more of course that I can list and list on
but the two ones that I want to talk about is isolation and toxic people
isolation will always make you feel like people are the problem
and number two toxic people will always make you feel like you're a problem
so isolation is completely the enemy's plan even every time people are in war
what the enemy will do even in natural wars is that the best place for you to
be attacked is when you are isolated so here's a couple of statistics on
isolation that I found quite interesting is that what isolation does is what when
your world dies before you do so a psychologist said that and before I read
the statistics is that your world dies before you do a terrible and the most
saddest feeling to feel is when you're trying to move with your life or try to
live but you're truly not living you're truly not living to your fullest
potential because everything enemy is already taking everyone is against you
everyone's against you and everyone's out to hurt you and one of the things
that it said is that social isolation is a growing epidemic in America loneliness
has doubled from 20% to 40% since the 1980s individuals with less social
connection have disrupted sleep patterns altered immune system more inflammation
and higher levels of stress hormones which causes diabetes with cut which
causes heart disease and so on and so forth
ìin increases the risk of heart disease by 29% and stroke by 32% this is my last
one I want to read to you guys on socially isolated
individuals had a 30% higher risk of dying in the next seven years and that
is the effect of which was largest in middle-aged we need to be surrounded by
people God did not design you to be isolated for you not to have people that
will love on you and to build life with he did not design it that way God does
not want you to be alone for he said as I bring back that scripture Genesis 2:18
he says for it's not good for man to be alone we need each other you guys all
know that the worst pain comes from a person and the greatest joy comes from
the person so even though someone may have hurt you in the past and there's no
trust at all it is taking that risk taking that step and saying even though
I feel this way I'll take a step the enemy is afraid of you he is afraid of
you I'm gonna tell you the devil is powerful but he's predictable and he
knows how this works and he knows first is that he wants to kill your identity
so that you never walk in confidence of who you are so that's what he does he
isolates you to remove people to build you up and then he gives you toxic
people to destroy what you think you are okay so he will track he knows how you
work because once you discover what you're about once you discover who you
truly are in Jesus Christ that he says you can
trample over scorpions that you can cast out demons that you are victorious that
you are more than a conqueror come on now if you only knew what you are
capable of if you only knew things would be absolutely different so he is after
your identity so he wants to make you alone so that no one will tell you
different what we need to do this year is to get rid of some to get rid of the
people that are burdening you and the reason why I say is that you don't want
to say I'm better than you see you later you don't want to ever do that
absolutely not because one day you will influence that yes amen
because it's either right now you're they're influencing you or are you
influencing them there's no middle there's no middle so
if you were in a position where they're influencing you walk away and once you
are strong enough and you have other people surrounding you then you go back
and get them over here to your side amen so with with your influence because you
have it the enemy wants to surround you with the people that will try to destroy
your name try to bring you down break you down trying to make you feel that
it's always your fault by manipulating you by all of those things there's so
many types of people that psychologists have listed that see how a toxic person
is negative breaking you down instead of building you up corrupting your
integrity suffocation manipulation removing faith and adding doubt now I
want to speak to some people that have been in a battlefield of being afraid to
let go of their friends because I know that there's people out there that have
this problem I've had that problem too and I was afraid to let them go because
I didn't want to be alone and I felt like I worked so hard to get these
friends but at the end of the day they didn't really care when I left so but
the point is is that if you stay with them what's gonna happen is is that you
should be afraid to not leave your friends but be afraid of that you will
never become of your destiny and it's it's not about being afraid to
leave the people but be afraid that your destiny will never come up now if you're
thinking oh my friends don't have that much power over me
well I'm gonna tell you that thinking is wrong and there's a scripture that I
want to share with you that happened all of you know the story of David and
Gillian yes now before David was about to take David and Gideon Goliath I'm so
sorry yeah they all came together there was
such great man of Valor know the story of David and Goliath
now Goliath comes and he starts to speak against the men of God God's people and
says who will challenge me for 40 days and for forty nights all of these men
were afraid of this Goliath he was kind of scary-looking I'm sure and so
everyone was afraid and holding back now here comes David walking in and he
starts to ask questions now it says in 1st Samuel 17 if you guys want to follow
and verse 26 David asked the soldiers standing nearby what will a man get for
killing this Philistine and ending his defiance of Israel who is this pagan
anyway that he's allowed to defy the armies of the Living God so he's kind of
like who is this guy like trying to you know bring down our God and make him
think that he's terrible or something like that but then jump to verse 28 it
says but when David's oldest brother ELab heard David talking to the men he
was angry what are you doing around here anyway
and they skipped to verse 29 says what have I done now David replied I was only
asking a question he walked over to some others and asked him the same thing
and received the same answer then David's question was reported back to
Saul and the king sent for him now I just really want to take this and I'm
gonna wrap this up is that his brother ELab his three older brothers were
exactly those toxic people he said who are you aren't you supposed to go back
to the Sheep what do you think you're doing go sit back down don't you dare go
and try to start asking questions what those negative people were trying to do
is stop him from becoming one of the greatest men of God in the Bible
try to stop him from fighting that Goliath what would have happened if
David was with those brothers he would have been one of those brothers that
were standing forty days and forty nights but but because he wasn't hanging
out with them he became that David God called him to be and he walked into his
destiny amen hey guys it's Bryson and I'm so glad
that you made it to Life Group this week real quick I just want to take a second
and fill you in on some information that you may not know about our church first
thing is that we have growth track every single Sunday of the month and it's a
great place to get plugged in and connected if you're not already plugged
in so make sure you make it this Sunday also we have every third Sunday of the
month water baptisms if you are saved but you haven't been water baptized make
sure you talk to your life group leader for more information and lastly on June
28th through the 29th we have what we call our freedom weekend it's an
encounter weekend where there's going to be healing there's going to be
deliverance there's going to be food it's going to be an amazing time that
you don't want to miss so make sure you're listening up for information in
these next couple of weeks about this event
anyways god bless you guys