Avoid Bad Companionship

The Morning Glory Devotion is a religious program that focuses on the importance of avoiding bad companionship. The message is based on the story of Lot's daughters in Genesis chapter 19. It highlights how our interactions with people and media can influence our thoughts, values, and behaviors. The daughters, who lived in a corrupt region, made a terrible decision due to the immoral values they had absorbed. The message encourages listeners to be mindful of their associations and to cut ties with anything that can negatively impact their morals. It emphasizes the need to maintain a godly character and to prioritize spiritual growth. The program concludes with a prayer and a reminder to tune in for more spiritual content on Radio HCI. I have treasured up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you. Shalom Beloved, God richly bless you for participating in the Just Ended Prayer startup. Welcome to the Morning Glory Devotion which is coming to you from the Harvest Chapel International Kumasi and airing on Radio HCI today. Privileged to be facilitating today's edition are Pastor and Mrs. Boafo. Please let's kindly share a word of prayer. Father, we thank you for the gift of today and for the privilege to come before you to hear from you. Please we pray that your word will come to enlighten, edify, and correct us. Let your word also come forth to heal and to give us life. We thank you in Jesus name. Amen. Let us kindly take our confession boldly from Joshua chapter 1 verse 8. This book of the law shall not be passed out of my mouth, but I shall meditate in it day and night that I may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then I will make my way prosperous and then I will have good success. Amen. Today's message is titled Avoid Bad Companionship and the test for consideration is Genesis chapter 19 verses 27 to 38. Please let us hear the word of the Lord. Genesis chapter 19 verses 27 to 38. Abraham got up early in the morning and went to the place where he had stood before the Lord. He looked out towards Sodom and Gomorrah and all the land of that region. As he did so, he saw the smoke rising up from the land like smoke from a furnace. So when God destroyed the cities of the region, God honored Abraham's request. He removed Lot from the midst of the destruction when he destroyed the cities Lot had lived in. Lot went up from Zohar with his two daughters and settled in the mountains because he was afraid to live in Zohar. So he lived in a cave with his two daughters. Later the older daughter said to the younger, our father is old and there is no man anywhere nearby to have sexual relations with us according to the way of the world. Come, let us make our father drunk with wine so we can have sexual relations with him and preserve our family line through our father. So that night they made their father drunk with wine and the older daughter came and had sexual relations with her father. But he was not aware he had had sexual relations with him and then got up. So in the morning the older daughter said to the younger, since I had sexual relations with my father last night, let's make him drunk again tonight. Then you go and have sexual relations with him so we can preserve our family line through our father. So they made their father drunk that night as well and the younger came and had sexual relations with him but he was not aware that she had had sexual relations with him and then got up. In this way both Lot's daughters became pregnant by their father. The older gave birth to a son and named him Moab. He is the ancestor of the Moabites of today. The younger daughter also gave birth to a son and named him Benamai. He is the ancestor of the Ammonites of today. Beloved, the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Avoid bad companionship. There is no doubt that our interactions with the environment in which we live, the people around us, the content on television, the radio, the magazines, newsletters, books and lately social media and the internet at large have a lot of influence on our way of thinking, moral values and ultimately our behaviors. These daily interactive associations have gradual, sometimes unnoticeable, but sure influences on our lives whether negative or positive. But oftentimes we fail to notice the potential effect of such interactions until they begin to manifest when we have to make certain decisions. In Genesis chapter 19, we meet the two daughters of Lot, Abraham's nephew, who were faced with a critical situation of no husbands and hence children and had to make a decision with lifelong consequences. Before then, they had lived most of their lives in one of the most corrupt regions of their generation, the plains of Jordan, in the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. Though Genesis chapter 19 verse 8 named them as virgins, through their interactions with the inhabitants of these cities who were described in Genesis chapter 19 verse 13 as extremely wicked, bad, and committed terrible sins against the Lord, they had unconsciously imbibed some immoral and abominable ungodly values. Just as we are told about their death in 2 Peter chapter 2 verse 7 through 8, we wouldn't be any far from truth to suppose that they were equally under great distress and had their righteous souls tortured from the lifestyle of the people among whom they lived, who had no principles and lived in sexual freedom. They must definitely have been struggling to maintain their confession and profession of faith in the Almighty God and perhaps have suffered some little compromises living among such a perverse group of people. Little did they know how polluted their mental faculties and decision-making models had become by reason of the corrupt people among whom they lived. By the exercise of God's grace and mercy, the daughters of Lot, together with their father, managed to escape the distractions of Sodom and Gomorrah when the Lord rained down fire and brimstone and reduced both humans and property to ashes, leaving their materialistic mother who had turned into a pillar of salt behind them. But before this escape, they had unconsciously assimilated a counter-godly culture of the inhabitants of these cities. Have we not been privy to this background of their former dwellings? It would have been very difficult to relate how these two young virgins can conceive and execute an idea so abominable as getting their father drunk and having sexual relations with him just so they could have children in the absence of husband. Beloved, don't ever think the things, the people and the places you are interacting with today, whether consciously or otherwise, will have no effect on you. Whatever you interact with privately will betray you publicly. Like a pregnancy, give it time and it will definitely show up. Consequently, the perspectives people hold about issues of life are a betrayal of the places they've been through and the nature of interactions they had at such places. As simple as 1 Corinthians 15 verse 33 puts it, be not deceived. Evil companionships corrupt good morals. Just think through your daily lifestyle, the people you associate with, the literature you interact with, your interactions with social media content, etc. If you care enough about your soul and want to maintain a godly character, the simple step of safety is to cast ties with any companionships and contents that can potentially damage your morals. Don't build excuses just so you can continue with such unhealthy associations and interactions. Don't delay the decision to cut off any unfruitful companionship. You may not always have the opportunity. So, if you must act, do it now. God richly bless you as you heed to his call this morning, in Jesus mighty name. Amen and Amen. Beloved, we want to take our memory verse together from 1 Corinthians chapter number 15 and the verse 33. I'm reading from the ASV version. The ASV, that's American Standard version. Be not deceived. Evil companionships corrupt good morals. Be not deceived. Evil companionships corrupt good morals. Beloved, let's share a word of prayer. Father, we thank you for the admonition that you have brought us this morning. We pray that you will help us to turn and stay away from every evil company in our lives in the name of Jesus. We ask that you will deliver us from every perversions, the corruptions, and the moral decadence in our generation. And please help us to stay within the confines of your word, your principles, and your ways. In Jesus mighty name we have prayed. Amen and Amen. Amen. Beloved, you must care enough about your soul and want to maintain a godly character. Cut ties with any companions, materials, content that can potentially pollute your mental faculties, damage your conscience, and corrupt your godly decision-making models and consequently your good morals. Thank you for staying with us for this edition. Please continue to keep your dial right here on Radio HCI today. Content airing throughout the day is carefully selected to create a holy atmosphere and environment for your spiritual edification. God bless and keep you till we meet again same time tomorrow for another edition of the Morning Glory Devotion. Shalom.