June 23, 2025 • 25 mins
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
We're excited that you joined us for today's episode of
the Creative Connection with Ed Young. We'll get to Ed's
message in just a moment. First, we want to invite
you to head online and sign up for Ed's daily
email Devotionals to get a daily dose of encouragement sent
to your inbox, covering relevant topics like victorious living, trusting God,
(00:22):
and living for Christ in our darkening world. Each daily
email starts with scripture followed by fresh encouragement from Ed
to help you think about and apply biblical truth to
your life. You'll also find a guided prayer at the end.
Sign up today by visiting Edyong dot com slash devotionals,
and while you're there, take a moment to browse previous
(00:43):
devotionals as well as watch and listen to messages from Ed.
Head online now to sign up and start receiving your
devotionals today. That website again is Edyong dot com slash Devotionals.
We look forward to connecting with you there. Now, let's
hear what Pastor Ed Ye house for us today.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
On my left foot, I've got one of my favorite
shoes on. In fact, my wife bought these shoes for
me this Christmas I love these shoes.
Speaker 3 (01:16):
Am I right?
Speaker 2 (01:17):
I have a flip flop that I counted it eighteen
years old.
Speaker 3 (01:23):
I've come close, dangerously.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
Close to throwing it away, but I'm not going to
do it because it's comfortable. But obviously I'm mismatched. Could
it be that someone here is mismatched? Could it be
that someone here is hooked up connected with the wrong they,
(01:47):
the wrong person in your life?
Speaker 3 (01:49):
Maybe you're with the wrong squad, the wrong click, the wrong.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
Team, the wrong fraternity, the wrong sorority, the wrong business.
Could it be that you're mismatched. I'm very excited about
this series. We opened it last week called fifty Shades
of They. Here's a great thing about God. God's not gray,
(02:14):
is he? Especially when it comes to relationships. We're all
about relationships. We have a hole in our heart shaped
like a cross, and it can only be filled with Jesus.
And then we have this yearning and this burning to
be with other people. We've got friends, we've got comrades,
we've got peers, we've got teammates, officemates, classmates, and so on.
(02:39):
Could it be, though, that you're mismatched, because when you
run with the.
Speaker 3 (02:45):
Crowd, the crowd will run you.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
And I truly believe that the right they are in
everyone's life. But the wrong they so often are in
the way of the right day, and the wrong they
can keep us in the fray. How do you move away?
Is this kind of controversial from the wrong day? How
(03:12):
do you spell relational relief?
Speaker 3 (03:14):
How do you say? You know what?
Speaker 2 (03:15):
I don't want to be mismatched anymore? And I'm mismatched
in this marriage, I'm i'm' mismatched.
Speaker 3 (03:23):
In this dating relationship.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
I've mismatched in this in this relationship I have with
some friends. I'm just I'm just mismatched. We know that
God has our best interests in mind, and every time
God gives us a prohibition, he always.
Speaker 3 (03:39):
Follows it with the promise. Isn't that awesome? Now?
Speaker 2 (03:42):
The Bible says something really intriguing about this. If you
have your Bibles, you want me to turn to the
New Testament Book of Second Corinthians. Second Corinthians, we have
a lot in common with the people of Corinth. Corinth
was a very holy city, very cosmopolitan city, very hip city.
(04:06):
Yet some of the people at the Church of Corinth,
they were mismatched. They were hanging out with the wrong day,
and the apostle Paul had something to say about it.
He was like, guys, don't be mismatched. That's what Paul said,
inspired by the Holy Spirit of God.
Speaker 3 (04:23):
Don't be mismatched.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
Because remember, God, Paul says, has our best interests in mind.
Two Corinthian, Chapter six. I'll begin reading in verse fourteen,
do not be yoked yoked, Yeah, yoke together with unbelievers?
For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or
what fellowship can light have with darkness?
Speaker 3 (04:47):
Yoke? Yoke? What do you mean? Do not be yoked
together with unbelievers?
Speaker 2 (04:52):
Yoke? A yoke is a piece of farm equipment. Back
in the day, it was a wooden structure that had
holes two holes, and animals of equal strength and equal
kind would what would be harnessed to this yoke? And
if they were of equal strength and equal kind, they
would they would do some beautiful things in the field.
Speaker 3 (05:16):
They would they would.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
Plow and it would go straight, and they could they
could sow seed and reap a harvest, and everybody was
happy and peppy and bursting with love. If if they
were equally yoked, no one, no farm or worth his
or hers salt would even think about being mismatched. No
farmer would think about putting maybe an ox in one
(05:42):
part of the yoke and a donkey in the other.
So the backdrop of this is in Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy, chapter
twenty two, Verse ten. It says, do not plow with
an ox and a donkey yoked together. A donkey, to
(06:03):
the Jewish mindset, was unclean.
Speaker 3 (06:06):
You've been around a donkey. Donkeys are cantankerous man an.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
Ox though they're they're more courageous. They got some they
got some confidence. They're clean to the jew So Jews
like I would never ever yoke together a clean animal
with an unclean animal.
Speaker 3 (06:26):
An ox with a donkey.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
No way, I'm not gonna do that, because the nature
determines the association. The nature of a pig determines its association.
Pigs hang out with other figs and then their destination,
hopefully because I like pork, they end up next to
(06:50):
some egg yolks see the theme, and we have eggs
and bacon. Yes, so the nature determines its association. I
don't want to be mismatched. God says, don't be mismatched.
My nature is what I'm a follower of Christ man
(07:12):
I've received Jesus. I have a new nature. I have
the nature of Christ. So I'm gonna be yoked together
with somebody who is a Christ follower. I'm yoked together
with Jesus, as we're gonna talk about later. Then it's
really impossible for me to be mismatched. He doesn't want
(07:34):
us to be mismatched. He wants to save us from
the drama and trauma of being mismatched. Now some have
read this and said, oh, I know what it means.
This means that we're to separate from the world. And
a lot of people run around thinking, all right, Christians,
they are the white hats and we versus the black cats,
(07:55):
you know, the weed, the weed the Christians. We're the
Christian army. And as you're non Christian, too bad for you.
You can go to.
Speaker 3 (08:01):
Hell and we'll just separate ourselves physically.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
And back in the day, you have people taking a
vow of poverty, an oath of isolation, which is not biblical.
It came out of the Catholic Church. Monasteries were built,
and these people didn't talk very much, supposed to pray
all the time and do all this stuff and they
(08:24):
didn't own one thing.
Speaker 3 (08:26):
Yet that was supposed to be holy. Well, there's one problem.
It's not biblical.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
The Bible never says we're to isolate ourselves physically. Yet
today it's real cool, it's real sexy. We have some
of these young Christians who think, oh man, everybody should
sell everything they have and fly over to Borneo and
become a missionary. It's modern day monasticism. You're not a
(08:53):
believer unless you've taken an oath of poverty. Where's that
in the Bible. Jesus only asked one person to sell
the rich young ruler.
Speaker 3 (09:01):
That was it. It's not in the Bible.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
Or to be in the world not of the world.
It's like a boat. The boat's in the ocean, is
not of the ocean. I am to be in the world,
not of the world. So yes, I am to be
in the world.
Speaker 3 (09:17):
But not of the world.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
It's like a great doctor, I treat the disease without
being contaminated. And what's so funny is a lot of
people go, oh, man, I can't wait to go to
Nicaragua or Guatemala or Haiti, And all of a sudden
they think when they step on the soils of a
foreign country. They'll become these white hot evangelists. I'm like,
(09:42):
that's great. What are you doing in your apartment complex?
What are you doing in your neighborhood. God has not
called us to be monks, to separate and isolate physically.
Speaker 3 (09:52):
He's called us to be missionaries missionaries.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
So it doesn't mean we separate ourselves physically, and it
doesn't mean we don't have friendships with people who are
far away from God. I've got a lot of friends
who are far away from God. We're friends, we have friendship,
but there's no fellowship. Fellowship means to have in common,
(10:19):
the commonality. I'm not yoke together with them.
Speaker 1 (10:23):
We'll return to today's message from Ed Young in just
a moment. First, though, Ed and Lisa Young know the
kind of pain most of us never hope to experience
the death of a child, and in their book A
Path through Pain, they share their family's journey through sorrow
and anger to hope and healing after the tragic and
sudden loss of their daughter. A Path through Pain is
(10:46):
our Thanks for your gift to help connect faith to
everyday life for more people through the creative connection. This
resource will help you see that God really does care
for you, and in the darkest of places, his lights
still shines to show you a way through. So head
over to egg young dot com slash gift to request
(11:06):
your copy of this encouraging resource. Again, that's ed Young
dot com slash gift. Now let's get back to today's message.
Speaker 2 (11:21):
What does it mean to be yoked? It means to
be bound? What does it mean to be yoke? Doesn't
mean to isolate yourself, doesn't mean to never relate to
anybody who's not a follower of Christ, because we're here
to bring as many people as possible to Heaven with us.
That's why we're here. So it doesn't mean those things.
And we've misinterpreted that and we've gone to all sorts
of crazy things Christians have, and some Christians I owe.
(11:44):
Everything I do is got to be Christian. And even
with my toilet's clogged, I'll call a Christian plumber and
I'll play Christian music. And really I want to call
the best plumber, not necessarily a Christian one. I'm talking about.
Don't be mismatched. Okay, let me let me talk to singles.
This is very unpopular, but listen to me. Because I've
(12:06):
lived this out, not perfectly, I've lived it out. Let
me talk about a man in woman's relationship, because you
know we do have this desire for the opposite sex.
Why does God insist that those who were single should
only date those who are believers?
Speaker 3 (12:21):
Why does God.
Speaker 2 (12:22):
Say, don't be mismatched when you're dating someone, and especially
don't marry somebody who's not a believer. I mean, why
would God say that two thirds of the group, as
I said earlier, are wiped out?
Speaker 3 (12:37):
You see the genius of God? Number one? God says,
and God knows that.
Speaker 2 (12:47):
We are going to be frustrated and humiliated if we
can't share that which is most precious to us with
our spouse. Did you get that the deepest part of
a person is their personal relationship with God through Christ.
Can you imagine not being able to share with someone
that which is the most intimate in your life?
Speaker 3 (13:08):
Also, think about the genius of God.
Speaker 2 (13:10):
Can you imagine having kids and one person is doing
one thing and the other person doing another. One parent
believes one thing, one parents doing another. I want to
build a house. Really well, let's just draw up two
sets of plans.
Speaker 3 (13:27):
How would that work? It'd be chaotic.
Speaker 2 (13:31):
That's what it's like if you're mismatched in a marriage
as far as child rearing challenges.
Speaker 3 (13:38):
Another reason why God insists that we've been.
Speaker 2 (13:41):
Matched up is because he knows that both parties, if
their followers of Christ, have the ministry of reconciliation. In effect,
Jesus did the reconciliation on the Cross. He did the
work on the cross for us to be reconciled to God,
all I have to do is look at the cross
(14:02):
and realize I have the ministry of reconciliation. And it
challenges me, and it calls for me to reconcile with
my spouse, with Lisa, when not if when we have
an argument, if you're not matched.
Speaker 3 (14:21):
Up, good luck, good luck. Oh Ed.
Speaker 2 (14:27):
I'm married, though, and I'm mismatched. I guess this means
I should just leave him. No, it doesn't mean that.
It means that you have a mantle to carry. It
means that you need to live out the life in
front of your mismatched spouse. It means you need to
(14:48):
put even more offensive energy into the church and surround
yourself with the right they Let's look at the next verse,
verse fifteen. What harmony is there between Christ and Satan.
None the word harmony here we get the English word
symphony from it. You got players reading off the same page,
(15:09):
players following the same conductor.
Speaker 3 (15:12):
Think marriage, Think your.
Speaker 2 (15:14):
Best friends, because again, the closest people to you, next
to your parents, the people that we owe the most
influence are your friends. And we're basically the average of
our best friends.
Speaker 3 (15:30):
What am I like, Well, you don't have to know me.
Speaker 2 (15:32):
You can just look at my best friends, the Fabulous
four and you can go, Okay, it's an average of
those people.
Speaker 3 (15:37):
And that's true. So are you?
Speaker 2 (15:40):
What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols?
For we, being the local church, are the temple of
the Living God. As God has said, I'll live with
them and walk with them, and I'll be their God
and they will be my people. We're the temple, the
dwelling place of the Holy Spirit of God.
Speaker 3 (16:00):
We all go through time.
Speaker 2 (16:01):
If you've been mismatched, why because I'm a white guy.
Why doesn't God want us to be.
Speaker 3 (16:10):
Mismatched? Why? Why? Why? Well, he doesn't want us to
hang around with a flip flop. Flip flops have poor traction.
Speaker 2 (16:18):
I need some traction when difficult times hit my life.
And if you're with a flip flop, if you're mismatched,
good luck. Flip Flops have no insulation. Man, My toes
and fingers get cold like that. I just cannot do
cold weather. I mean it's just like that. So flip flops,
(16:39):
you're they're cool and all that, but you don't wear
them that long. These are like eighteen years old and
they have terrible insulation. Very few places I can go
dressed like this. Flip Flops also hold you back. You
realize the wrong days holding you back. The right day,
(17:03):
go back to the nature and association you're associated with.
The right day, you're gonna participate with him and you'll
go to the right destination.
Speaker 3 (17:12):
They'll hold you back, man.
Speaker 2 (17:14):
I mean there, you think I can go anywhere like this,
Try to go into a nice restaurant, hotel, business, or
try to have a meeting like this, They're gonna be
left ed.
Speaker 3 (17:25):
You look great. One shoe can ruin.
Speaker 2 (17:32):
This outfit, and you're letting this flip flop mess you around,
hold you back.
Speaker 3 (17:43):
They'll hold you back, man. Also, flip flops hurt you.
Speaker 2 (17:47):
You'll have an accident, You're gonna sprain your ankle, or
blow out your knee like my son did, put on
some flip flops. Even my friends that fish for a living,
they don't wear a flip flop.
Speaker 3 (18:00):
So I'll tell you those things are pitiful. They' where
I'm now, and then.
Speaker 2 (18:06):
Beat, get cut and get snake bit cos will get cold.
Who wants a flip flop? You don't want a flip flop?
It's a mismatch. Why do we remain mismatched? Well, they're
just comfortable when we had it for a long time.
I'm not gonna I'm not gonna give them up. And plus,
(18:29):
if I give them up, if I move away from him,
I feel guilty. I feel guilty and afraid. I mean,
they might start hating on me, or or they might
they might post something negative on social media. Hey's gonna hate,
that's gonna happen. It's time to separate. It's time to
(18:50):
kick off the flip flop. Well that's what that's what
the Bible says. You know, I was thinking as I
was perusing scripture about kicking off the flip flop. You
remember when Israel took over the Promised Land, God said,
don't don't be mismatched.
Speaker 3 (19:09):
With these ungodly pagan people.
Speaker 2 (19:12):
It was just a matter of time before many of
them were the don't wearing the flip flop? Weren't they
wearing that flip flop? And the hammer came down because
they did it. The prophets warned the people. A lot
of them didn't listen. The hammer fell the apostles as
(19:33):
they pen these epistles. They warned the people, the hammer
fell because God is going to allow the consequences to
be in effect in your life and mind when we
hang out with the wrong day.
Speaker 3 (19:47):
So here's the answer. Here's the good news. Here's the
good news.
Speaker 2 (19:51):
Here's how to kick off the flip flop. Therefore, come
out from them and be separate, says the Lord, touch
no unclean thing, and I will receive you. You could
jot down Isaiah fifty two eleven, because this text is
(20:12):
pretty much the backdrop of Isaiah fifty to eleven, which
talks about the captive nation leaving Babylon and returning to
their own land. So we kick off the flip flop,
and we return to the relational land, the relational real
estate that God has for us. That's what we do.
(20:34):
We come out, we separate, not isolate. We separate, says
come out from them, be separate and touch no unclean thing.
Sometimes I just unfollow people because they're flip flop people.
Speaker 3 (20:53):
I do.
Speaker 2 (20:55):
Sometimes I'll go through my phone and just delete certain names,
certain contacts because their flip flop people. We need to
constantly do this because the enemy will always put the
wrong day in the way of the right day, and
(21:16):
the wrong day will suck us into the fray and
will miss being matched up with the kind of people
that God wants. I'm not saying to be mean spirited.
I'm not saying to punch somebody or to tell somebody off.
I'm saying what the scripture says. We have to separate.
(21:37):
We're moving towards the things of God. We're yoked up
to Jesus. And because we're yoked up to Jesus, it
is impossible to be yoked up to someone who's not
yoked up to Jesus. If I'm yoked up to Jesus,
I'm gonna be yoked up with people who have Jesus
in their lives. They're not dragging me down, they're pulling
(21:59):
me up. They're not hating on me. They're encouraging me.
They're not saying this or that, they're challenging me. There's
a commonalty, there's a goal. We're plowing in straight lines.
Since we have these promises. I'm sorry, Chapter seven, verse one. Therefore,
(22:19):
since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify
ourselves from everything that contaminates. That's what I said earlier
about the doctor, right contact without contamination. Good doctors know
how to do that, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God.
And then in Matthew eleven twenty nine, Jesus said, take
(22:42):
my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I'm
gentle and humble in heart, and you'll find rest for
your souls. We take that yoke, and God will take
us place as we never dream possible.
Speaker 3 (22:56):
And you know, if you don't get this, the yoke
is on you.
Speaker 2 (23:00):
If you don't understand this, the yoke is on you.
God wants the best for your relationships, for your marriage,
for your dating relationships, for your friendships. And it happens
when we say, okay, Jesus, you be the center of
my life.
Speaker 3 (23:21):
I'm not going to put fear there or guilt there.
Speaker 2 (23:25):
I'm not going to put myself there materialism there. I'm
not putting jealousy there. I'm not putting anything there, but you.
You be the center of my life. I want to
yoke up to you, and I promise you you'll find
yourself naturally and really supernaturally leaving the wrong day and
(23:49):
moving to the right day. I'm a walking, living, breathing testimony.
I've not done it perfectly, but I've lived it out
for decades.
Speaker 3 (24:04):
God's way works.
Speaker 1 (24:09):
We're so glad you've joined us for today's episode of
The Creative Connection with Ed Young. We'd love to help
you continue connecting your faith to everyday life by sending
you a copy of A Path Through Pain. It's Ed
and Lisa Young's powerful book about God's loving presence in
your toughest trials. You'll be encouraged as they recount their
(24:31):
own painful journey of loss to show you that even
in the darkest of places, God's light still shines to
show you away through A Path through Pain is our
Thanks for your gift to help reach more people with
biblical truth through The Creative Connection.
Speaker 3 (24:48):
Jess.
Speaker 1 (24:48):
Visit edyong dot com slash gift to request your copy.
Thank you for your support. We'll see you next time.
On the creative connection,
We're excited that you joined us for today's episode of
the Creative Connection with Ed Young. We'll get to Ed's
message in just a moment. First, we want to invite
you to head online and sign up for Ed's daily
email Devotionals to get a daily dose of encouragement sent
to your inbox, covering relevant topics like victorious living, trusting God,
(00:22):
and living for Christ in our darkening world. Each daily
email starts with scripture followed by fresh encouragement from Ed
to help you think about and apply biblical truth to
your life. You'll also find a guided prayer at the end.
Sign up today by visiting Edyong dot com slash devotionals,
and while you're there, take a moment to browse previous
(00:43):
devotionals as well as watch and listen to messages from Ed.
Head online now to sign up and start receiving your
devotionals today. That website again is Edyong dot com slash Devotionals.
We look forward to connecting with you there. Now, let's
hear what Pastor Ed Ye house for us today.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
On my left foot, I've got one of my favorite
shoes on. In fact, my wife bought these shoes for
me this Christmas I love these shoes.
Speaker 3 (01:16):
Am I right?
Speaker 2 (01:17):
I have a flip flop that I counted it eighteen
years old.
Speaker 3 (01:23):
I've come close, dangerously.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
Close to throwing it away, but I'm not going to
do it because it's comfortable. But obviously I'm mismatched. Could
it be that someone here is mismatched? Could it be
that someone here is hooked up connected with the wrong they,
(01:47):
the wrong person in your life?
Speaker 3 (01:49):
Maybe you're with the wrong squad, the wrong click, the wrong.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
Team, the wrong fraternity, the wrong sorority, the wrong business.
Could it be that you're mismatched. I'm very excited about
this series. We opened it last week called fifty Shades
of They. Here's a great thing about God. God's not gray,
(02:14):
is he? Especially when it comes to relationships. We're all
about relationships. We have a hole in our heart shaped
like a cross, and it can only be filled with Jesus.
And then we have this yearning and this burning to
be with other people. We've got friends, we've got comrades,
we've got peers, we've got teammates, officemates, classmates, and so on.
(02:39):
Could it be, though, that you're mismatched, because when you
run with the.
Speaker 3 (02:45):
Crowd, the crowd will run you.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
And I truly believe that the right they are in
everyone's life. But the wrong they so often are in
the way of the right day, and the wrong they
can keep us in the fray. How do you move away?
Is this kind of controversial from the wrong day? How
(03:12):
do you spell relational relief?
Speaker 3 (03:14):
How do you say? You know what?
Speaker 2 (03:15):
I don't want to be mismatched anymore? And I'm mismatched
in this marriage, I'm i'm' mismatched.
Speaker 3 (03:23):
In this dating relationship.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
I've mismatched in this in this relationship I have with
some friends. I'm just I'm just mismatched. We know that
God has our best interests in mind, and every time
God gives us a prohibition, he always.
Speaker 3 (03:39):
Follows it with the promise. Isn't that awesome? Now?
Speaker 2 (03:42):
The Bible says something really intriguing about this. If you
have your Bibles, you want me to turn to the
New Testament Book of Second Corinthians. Second Corinthians, we have
a lot in common with the people of Corinth. Corinth
was a very holy city, very cosmopolitan city, very hip city.
(04:06):
Yet some of the people at the Church of Corinth,
they were mismatched. They were hanging out with the wrong day,
and the apostle Paul had something to say about it.
He was like, guys, don't be mismatched. That's what Paul said,
inspired by the Holy Spirit of God.
Speaker 3 (04:23):
Don't be mismatched.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
Because remember, God, Paul says, has our best interests in mind.
Two Corinthian, Chapter six. I'll begin reading in verse fourteen,
do not be yoked yoked, Yeah, yoke together with unbelievers?
For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or
what fellowship can light have with darkness?
Speaker 3 (04:47):
Yoke? Yoke? What do you mean? Do not be yoked
together with unbelievers?
Speaker 2 (04:52):
Yoke? A yoke is a piece of farm equipment. Back
in the day, it was a wooden structure that had
holes two holes, and animals of equal strength and equal
kind would what would be harnessed to this yoke? And
if they were of equal strength and equal kind, they
would they would do some beautiful things in the field.
Speaker 3 (05:16):
They would they would.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
Plow and it would go straight, and they could they
could sow seed and reap a harvest, and everybody was
happy and peppy and bursting with love. If if they
were equally yoked, no one, no farm or worth his
or hers salt would even think about being mismatched. No
farmer would think about putting maybe an ox in one
(05:42):
part of the yoke and a donkey in the other.
So the backdrop of this is in Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy, chapter
twenty two, Verse ten. It says, do not plow with
an ox and a donkey yoked together. A donkey, to
(06:03):
the Jewish mindset, was unclean.
Speaker 3 (06:06):
You've been around a donkey. Donkeys are cantankerous man an.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
Ox though they're they're more courageous. They got some they
got some confidence. They're clean to the jew So Jews
like I would never ever yoke together a clean animal
with an unclean animal.
Speaker 3 (06:26):
An ox with a donkey.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
No way, I'm not gonna do that, because the nature
determines the association. The nature of a pig determines its association.
Pigs hang out with other figs and then their destination,
hopefully because I like pork, they end up next to
(06:50):
some egg yolks see the theme, and we have eggs
and bacon. Yes, so the nature determines its association. I
don't want to be mismatched. God says, don't be mismatched.
My nature is what I'm a follower of Christ man
(07:12):
I've received Jesus. I have a new nature. I have
the nature of Christ. So I'm gonna be yoked together
with somebody who is a Christ follower. I'm yoked together
with Jesus, as we're gonna talk about later. Then it's
really impossible for me to be mismatched. He doesn't want
(07:34):
us to be mismatched. He wants to save us from
the drama and trauma of being mismatched. Now some have
read this and said, oh, I know what it means.
This means that we're to separate from the world. And
a lot of people run around thinking, all right, Christians,
they are the white hats and we versus the black cats,
(07:55):
you know, the weed, the weed the Christians. We're the
Christian army. And as you're non Christian, too bad for you.
You can go to.
Speaker 3 (08:01):
Hell and we'll just separate ourselves physically.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
And back in the day, you have people taking a
vow of poverty, an oath of isolation, which is not biblical.
It came out of the Catholic Church. Monasteries were built,
and these people didn't talk very much, supposed to pray
all the time and do all this stuff and they
(08:24):
didn't own one thing.
Speaker 3 (08:26):
Yet that was supposed to be holy. Well, there's one problem.
It's not biblical.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
The Bible never says we're to isolate ourselves physically. Yet
today it's real cool, it's real sexy. We have some
of these young Christians who think, oh man, everybody should
sell everything they have and fly over to Borneo and
become a missionary. It's modern day monasticism. You're not a
(08:53):
believer unless you've taken an oath of poverty. Where's that
in the Bible. Jesus only asked one person to sell
the rich young ruler.
Speaker 3 (09:01):
That was it. It's not in the Bible.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
Or to be in the world not of the world.
It's like a boat. The boat's in the ocean, is
not of the ocean. I am to be in the world,
not of the world. So yes, I am to be
in the world.
Speaker 3 (09:17):
But not of the world.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
It's like a great doctor, I treat the disease without
being contaminated. And what's so funny is a lot of
people go, oh, man, I can't wait to go to
Nicaragua or Guatemala or Haiti, And all of a sudden
they think when they step on the soils of a
foreign country. They'll become these white hot evangelists. I'm like,
(09:42):
that's great. What are you doing in your apartment complex?
What are you doing in your neighborhood. God has not
called us to be monks, to separate and isolate physically.
Speaker 3 (09:52):
He's called us to be missionaries missionaries.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
So it doesn't mean we separate ourselves physically, and it
doesn't mean we don't have friendships with people who are
far away from God. I've got a lot of friends
who are far away from God. We're friends, we have friendship,
but there's no fellowship. Fellowship means to have in common,
(10:19):
the commonality. I'm not yoke together with them.
Speaker 1 (10:23):
We'll return to today's message from Ed Young in just
a moment. First, though, Ed and Lisa Young know the
kind of pain most of us never hope to experience
the death of a child, and in their book A
Path through Pain, they share their family's journey through sorrow
and anger to hope and healing after the tragic and
sudden loss of their daughter. A Path through Pain is
(10:46):
our Thanks for your gift to help connect faith to
everyday life for more people through the creative connection. This
resource will help you see that God really does care
for you, and in the darkest of places, his lights
still shines to show you a way through. So head
over to egg young dot com slash gift to request
(11:06):
your copy of this encouraging resource. Again, that's ed Young
dot com slash gift. Now let's get back to today's message.
Speaker 2 (11:21):
What does it mean to be yoked? It means to
be bound? What does it mean to be yoke? Doesn't
mean to isolate yourself, doesn't mean to never relate to
anybody who's not a follower of Christ, because we're here
to bring as many people as possible to Heaven with us.
That's why we're here. So it doesn't mean those things.
And we've misinterpreted that and we've gone to all sorts
of crazy things Christians have, and some Christians I owe.
(11:44):
Everything I do is got to be Christian. And even
with my toilet's clogged, I'll call a Christian plumber and
I'll play Christian music. And really I want to call
the best plumber, not necessarily a Christian one. I'm talking about.
Don't be mismatched. Okay, let me let me talk to singles.
This is very unpopular, but listen to me. Because I've
(12:06):
lived this out, not perfectly, I've lived it out. Let
me talk about a man in woman's relationship, because you
know we do have this desire for the opposite sex.
Why does God insist that those who were single should
only date those who are believers?
Speaker 3 (12:21):
Why does God.
Speaker 2 (12:22):
Say, don't be mismatched when you're dating someone, and especially
don't marry somebody who's not a believer. I mean, why
would God say that two thirds of the group, as
I said earlier, are wiped out?
Speaker 3 (12:37):
You see the genius of God? Number one? God says,
and God knows that.
Speaker 2 (12:47):
We are going to be frustrated and humiliated if we
can't share that which is most precious to us with
our spouse. Did you get that the deepest part of
a person is their personal relationship with God through Christ.
Can you imagine not being able to share with someone
that which is the most intimate in your life?
Speaker 3 (13:08):
Also, think about the genius of God.
Speaker 2 (13:10):
Can you imagine having kids and one person is doing
one thing and the other person doing another. One parent
believes one thing, one parents doing another. I want to
build a house. Really well, let's just draw up two
sets of plans.
Speaker 3 (13:27):
How would that work? It'd be chaotic.
Speaker 2 (13:31):
That's what it's like if you're mismatched in a marriage
as far as child rearing challenges.
Speaker 3 (13:38):
Another reason why God insists that we've been.
Speaker 2 (13:41):
Matched up is because he knows that both parties, if
their followers of Christ, have the ministry of reconciliation. In effect,
Jesus did the reconciliation on the Cross. He did the
work on the cross for us to be reconciled to God,
all I have to do is look at the cross
(14:02):
and realize I have the ministry of reconciliation. And it
challenges me, and it calls for me to reconcile with
my spouse, with Lisa, when not if when we have
an argument, if you're not matched.
Speaker 3 (14:21):
Up, good luck, good luck. Oh Ed.
Speaker 2 (14:27):
I'm married, though, and I'm mismatched. I guess this means
I should just leave him. No, it doesn't mean that.
It means that you have a mantle to carry. It
means that you need to live out the life in
front of your mismatched spouse. It means you need to
(14:48):
put even more offensive energy into the church and surround
yourself with the right they Let's look at the next verse,
verse fifteen. What harmony is there between Christ and Satan.
None the word harmony here we get the English word
symphony from it. You got players reading off the same page,
(15:09):
players following the same conductor.
Speaker 3 (15:12):
Think marriage, Think your.
Speaker 2 (15:14):
Best friends, because again, the closest people to you, next
to your parents, the people that we owe the most
influence are your friends. And we're basically the average of
our best friends.
Speaker 3 (15:30):
What am I like, Well, you don't have to know me.
Speaker 2 (15:32):
You can just look at my best friends, the Fabulous
four and you can go, Okay, it's an average of
those people.
Speaker 3 (15:37):
And that's true. So are you?
Speaker 2 (15:40):
What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols?
For we, being the local church, are the temple of
the Living God. As God has said, I'll live with
them and walk with them, and I'll be their God
and they will be my people. We're the temple, the
dwelling place of the Holy Spirit of God.
Speaker 3 (16:00):
We all go through time.
Speaker 2 (16:01):
If you've been mismatched, why because I'm a white guy.
Why doesn't God want us to be.
Speaker 3 (16:10):
Mismatched? Why? Why? Why? Well, he doesn't want us to
hang around with a flip flop. Flip flops have poor traction.
Speaker 2 (16:18):
I need some traction when difficult times hit my life.
And if you're with a flip flop, if you're mismatched,
good luck. Flip Flops have no insulation. Man, My toes
and fingers get cold like that. I just cannot do
cold weather. I mean it's just like that. So flip flops,
(16:39):
you're they're cool and all that, but you don't wear
them that long. These are like eighteen years old and
they have terrible insulation. Very few places I can go
dressed like this. Flip Flops also hold you back. You
realize the wrong days holding you back. The right day,
(17:03):
go back to the nature and association you're associated with.
The right day, you're gonna participate with him and you'll
go to the right destination.
Speaker 3 (17:12):
They'll hold you back, man.
Speaker 2 (17:14):
I mean there, you think I can go anywhere like this,
Try to go into a nice restaurant, hotel, business, or
try to have a meeting like this, They're gonna be
left ed.
Speaker 3 (17:25):
You look great. One shoe can ruin.
Speaker 2 (17:32):
This outfit, and you're letting this flip flop mess you around,
hold you back.
Speaker 3 (17:43):
They'll hold you back, man. Also, flip flops hurt you.
Speaker 2 (17:47):
You'll have an accident, You're gonna sprain your ankle, or
blow out your knee like my son did, put on
some flip flops. Even my friends that fish for a living,
they don't wear a flip flop.
Speaker 3 (18:00):
So I'll tell you those things are pitiful. They' where
I'm now, and then.
Speaker 2 (18:06):
Beat, get cut and get snake bit cos will get cold.
Who wants a flip flop? You don't want a flip flop?
It's a mismatch. Why do we remain mismatched? Well, they're
just comfortable when we had it for a long time.
I'm not gonna I'm not gonna give them up. And plus,
(18:29):
if I give them up, if I move away from him,
I feel guilty. I feel guilty and afraid. I mean,
they might start hating on me, or or they might
they might post something negative on social media. Hey's gonna hate,
that's gonna happen. It's time to separate. It's time to
(18:50):
kick off the flip flop. Well that's what that's what
the Bible says. You know, I was thinking as I
was perusing scripture about kicking off the flip flop. You
remember when Israel took over the Promised Land, God said,
don't don't be mismatched.
Speaker 3 (19:09):
With these ungodly pagan people.
Speaker 2 (19:12):
It was just a matter of time before many of
them were the don't wearing the flip flop? Weren't they
wearing that flip flop? And the hammer came down because
they did it. The prophets warned the people. A lot
of them didn't listen. The hammer fell the apostles as
(19:33):
they pen these epistles. They warned the people, the hammer
fell because God is going to allow the consequences to
be in effect in your life and mind when we
hang out with the wrong day.
Speaker 3 (19:47):
So here's the answer. Here's the good news. Here's the
good news.
Speaker 2 (19:51):
Here's how to kick off the flip flop. Therefore, come
out from them and be separate, says the Lord, touch
no unclean thing, and I will receive you. You could
jot down Isaiah fifty two eleven, because this text is
(20:12):
pretty much the backdrop of Isaiah fifty to eleven, which
talks about the captive nation leaving Babylon and returning to
their own land. So we kick off the flip flop,
and we return to the relational land, the relational real
estate that God has for us. That's what we do.
(20:34):
We come out, we separate, not isolate. We separate, says
come out from them, be separate and touch no unclean thing.
Sometimes I just unfollow people because they're flip flop people.
Speaker 3 (20:53):
I do.
Speaker 2 (20:55):
Sometimes I'll go through my phone and just delete certain names,
certain contacts because their flip flop people. We need to
constantly do this because the enemy will always put the
wrong day in the way of the right day, and
(21:16):
the wrong day will suck us into the fray and
will miss being matched up with the kind of people
that God wants. I'm not saying to be mean spirited.
I'm not saying to punch somebody or to tell somebody off.
I'm saying what the scripture says. We have to separate.
(21:37):
We're moving towards the things of God. We're yoked up
to Jesus. And because we're yoked up to Jesus, it
is impossible to be yoked up to someone who's not
yoked up to Jesus. If I'm yoked up to Jesus,
I'm gonna be yoked up with people who have Jesus
in their lives. They're not dragging me down, they're pulling
(21:59):
me up. They're not hating on me. They're encouraging me.
They're not saying this or that, they're challenging me. There's
a commonalty, there's a goal. We're plowing in straight lines.
Since we have these promises. I'm sorry, Chapter seven, verse one. Therefore,
(22:19):
since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify
ourselves from everything that contaminates. That's what I said earlier
about the doctor, right contact without contamination. Good doctors know
how to do that, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God.
And then in Matthew eleven twenty nine, Jesus said, take
(22:42):
my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I'm
gentle and humble in heart, and you'll find rest for
your souls. We take that yoke, and God will take
us place as we never dream possible.
Speaker 3 (22:56):
And you know, if you don't get this, the yoke
is on you.
Speaker 2 (23:00):
If you don't understand this, the yoke is on you.
God wants the best for your relationships, for your marriage,
for your dating relationships, for your friendships. And it happens
when we say, okay, Jesus, you be the center of
my life.
Speaker 3 (23:21):
I'm not going to put fear there or guilt there.
Speaker 2 (23:25):
I'm not going to put myself there materialism there. I'm
not putting jealousy there. I'm not putting anything there, but you.
You be the center of my life. I want to
yoke up to you, and I promise you you'll find
yourself naturally and really supernaturally leaving the wrong day and
(23:49):
moving to the right day. I'm a walking, living, breathing testimony.
I've not done it perfectly, but I've lived it out
for decades.
Speaker 3 (24:04):
God's way works.
Speaker 1 (24:09):
We're so glad you've joined us for today's episode of
The Creative Connection with Ed Young. We'd love to help
you continue connecting your faith to everyday life by sending
you a copy of A Path Through Pain. It's Ed
and Lisa Young's powerful book about God's loving presence in
your toughest trials. You'll be encouraged as they recount their
(24:31):
own painful journey of loss to show you that even
in the darkest of places, God's light still shines to
show you away through A Path through Pain is our
Thanks for your gift to help reach more people with
biblical truth through The Creative Connection.
Speaker 3 (24:48):
Jess.
Speaker 1 (24:48):
Visit edyong dot com slash gift to request your copy.
Thank you for your support. We'll see you next time.
On the creative connection,
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