Jeremiah TiptonFounder in president of David Hernandez ministries

Protect Your Spiritual Health

30 Dec 2025 · 2 min

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1:30

In this sermon excerpt, the speaker emphasizes that the people we spend time with profoundly affect our spiritual life. He distinguishes between merely knowing the principle that "bad company corrupts good character" and truly internalizing it so that it shapes daily behavior. The speaker calls for intentional relationship building within the body of Christ, urging believers to be selective about who they confide in, pray with, and spend the majority of their time with, while still caring for struggling believers. He advises setting healthy distance when relationships begin to weaken one's commitment to Christ, and frames the central reflective question: are you influencing others spiritually, or are they influencing you?

Chapters

Recognize that the people you're around will affect your spiritual life. Now, I know we understand this and we acknowledge this as a truth, a reality, but I think we need to internalize this truth in such a way that it becomes a part of the way that we behave. It's one thing to know that bad company corrupts good character. It's one thing to understand intellectually that the people you're around can affect you. It's another thing to internalize that truth in such a way that you live a lifestyle of intentional relationship building, not just connecting with anyone all the time. Now, I understand that as the body of Christ, we're to be connected, but this doesn't mean that the people closest to you, who you confide in, who pray with you, who understand you at a deeper level, who you spend most of your time with, that doesn't mean everyone has to be allowed inside of that. No. I wanna balance this because we also have to understand that there are people who are struggling, and this doesn't mean that we just dismiss them and have nothing to do with them. But if they begin to influence you in a way that takes away from your relationship with the Lord, if they begin to influence you in a way that takes you off focus or begins to weaken your commitment to Christ, now it's time to make that separation, maybe not even completely, But distance them a little. The key difference is this, are you influencing them or are they influencing you?