Seperated Life

                                                  Separated Life

Esther 3:8
There is certain people. Their laws are different from all other peoples.

What should be the law the a believer should have?

Sure , he should follow law of the land.

he should what the family says.

but above all the law the believer should have is

Law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus.

Romans 8:2
2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.

Haman said their laws are different from all other peoples.

We all have a tendency to do what majority does.
Exodus 23:2 says

2 You shall not follow a crowd to do evil;

Don't follow the crowd in doing wrong.

if majority in the office talks bad about the boss, we have a tendency to do that.

Everybody wants to be praised by others. We also want to be praises by others. .

Like 6:26 says what sorrow awaits who are praised by crowds.

But what God desires is that we should not be like the world.

2 Kings 17: 10,11,15
They set up for themselves sacred pillars and wooden images on every high hill and under every green tree. There they burned incense on all the high places, like the nations whom the Lord had carried away before them; and they did wicked things to provoke the Lord to anger, And they rejected His statutes and His covenant that He had made with their fathers, and His testimonies which He had testified against them; they followed idols, became idolaters, and went after the nations who were all around them, concerning whom the Lord had charged them that they should not do like them.

God's  intention from the beginning is that believer should not be like other people.

Should not follow what others do. 
Should not follow threes trends of what the world does

What Israel doing was 

All nations had high places,  they also erected high places, 

They had wooden images on high mountain and green trees.

Today we might not have these,  but what all other people has we want to have. 

Let us look at the life of Daniel who seperated himself from all other people

Daniel 1: 8

Daniel 1:8
8 But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king’s delicacies, nor with the wine which he drank; therefore he requested of the chief of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself.

When all the nobles and princes were called and asked to eat the meat given for king,

Daniel was just a teenage boy.

Daniel did not go with majority, but he was ruled by the Spirit of God.
He did not get the information from any book, he did not get the information from kings laws
but he got it from what God has written on his heart. ( Romans 2:15)

Romans 2:15

15 who show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and between themselves their thoughts accusing or else excusing them)

your seperation starts from a determination in your heart, then a confession follows

And then he went and confessed to the chief.
he could have acted like eating it and throwing it in the trash.
but he did not act it out, he confessed.

we worry that when we take a stand what happens to job, but Gods favor flows like it flowed to Daniel.

For us we are afraid what happens if i take a stand, but look at Daniel.

there were kings changing, kingdoms changing, but Daniel was in kingss palace.

generally if the government changes, they change the main officials.

How he got this favor is because of his separation.

1 Samuel 8:4

Israelites say you are old, and your sons don't walk in your ways, so give us king.
Like all the nations.

Like all the nations.

When all the nations were having king,  God was the king of Israel. 
He was ruling through his prophets,  judges, but he was ruling.

They know that one after another judge has  been raised by God.

But what they saw is all other nations .
They said like all other nations.

If you are godly person, whether it's in your family,  or in your church raise up the sons and daughters who walk in Godly ways like you.
Many people are godly,  but by the time they behind old,  they don't have leaders,  and the family or congregation would look to follow what other nations did.

Whatever be the reason,  God didn't like what Israelites asked.

Good said they have rejected Me.
When we ask what all other people  are having then remember we are actually rejecting God.

Don't say I am just want to be comfortable.
Don't say that's okay,
But when you are desiring what all other people are looking for , we recommend actually rejecting God.
V 9 God said give them what they want, but also warn them that the king is going to become a snare for them.

God might give you what you want, but it might become a snare for them.

Have you ever wondered when you have prayed for something that God gave it to you and still that became big headache for you, 

Check if you have asked like all other people have.

Lord everybody has that thing,  please blessed me also.

Pray only for needs,  don't pray for your lusts.

Noah.

7 By faith Noah, being divinely warned of things not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared an ark for the saving of his household, by which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith.

if we see the life of Noah , he was actually moved with godly fear

and what he was doing was.

every morning when everybody gets up, you know what all people are doing

Matthew 24:18

 38 For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark

morning every body getsup, eating and drinking, marraiges and all things of the world. is there anything wrong,

but everyday he getsup and takes the wood, breaks the wood, takes the nails , put the wood together.

How many years it took, whatever is the number of years, he kept on constructing the Ark.

His seperated life is this, in days of noah everyone will be doing all things of the world, he is diffferent, he will be taking wood, constructing the ark.

daily constructing the ark.

Esther 3:8, In verse 8, haman says,

in other versions says it says their customs are different form other people customs.
what does it mean?
after becoming a believer also, we carry on lot of customs from our traditional backgrounds.

Galatians 4:8,9

8 But then, indeed, when you did not know God, you served those which by nature are not gods. 9 But now after you have known God, or rather are known by God, how is it that you turn again to the weak and beggarly elements, to which you desire again to be in bondage? 10 You observe days and months and seasons and years. 11 I am afraid for you, lest I have labored for you in vain.

for example:

in India,people dont travel on tuesdays.
or
if we buy a house, we make sure that milk boils and it flows in the kitchen saying the prosperity will come, but we should know our prosperity comes by the favor of God and not by making the milk flow over the vessel.
favor of the Lord will make us prosperous.
or a generous person will be prosperous
a person who trusts in the Lord will be prosperous.

-- if we take a look at an classical example of how people of God want to have what all other people had.

Why did haman said these people are different.

Haman who is honored by king Ahasuerus wanted to kill Mordecai. why he wanted to kill Mordecai is:

V1,2 - king promoted haman and haman is next to king.

What everybody ( all kings servants) does is bow down to haman.
but
Haman represents flesh.
Haman was Agagite. and everybody bows down
The flesh always demands bowing down.

But Mordecai refused to bow down or pay homage.

When we try to stand up for God, all others will start to say, aren't we doing that. you alone are holy, we are all trash.

and they do that daily.In verse 4 Just like all the king servants were asking Mordecai to bow down daily.

When we have to take a stand for God, we need to confess as we heard yesterday.

Mordecai confessed and said i am a believer, i can not do this.

In verse 5, when you take a stand  for God, you are not representing for yourselves, you are actually representing the whole community who believes in you.

when you do something,people will say Christians are like this.
people are always looking at us to see how different we are from them.

In verse 8, haman says, these people are different from other peoples laws.
in other versions says it says their customs are different form other people customs.
Here actually haman is doing accusation of Mordecai and jews but what he is actually it is the testimony for them.

When people say some accusing things about us, they are not just accusing us, inturn they are actually giving testimony about our lives.

when you live as a testimony, there sure is suffering.

In conclysion, Matthew 7: 13,14 says

Don't go by what many people say or many people do

Many people enter the broad way to goto destruction,
But narrow is the gate and difficult is the way. Few find it.