How Will I Know - Part 3
Sermon • Submitted
0 ratings
· 7 viewsNotes
Transcript
How Will I Know - Part 3
How Will I Know - Part 3
3 We can be sure that we know God if we obey his commands.
Confession of Faith
I am not moved by what I see or by what I feel. I am moved by what I believe. I believe the WORD of God! The victory is mine! I have it now! I can see it through the eyes of my faith! In Jesus Name!
Introduction:
Last week we looked at the question of Knowing God, by looking at the commandment to
Love your neighbor
Love your neighbor
Today I want to look a little deeper into the concept of Knowing God by looking at the another directive documented in scripture
Do Not Love the World
Do Not Love the World
15 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If you love the world, the love of the Father is not in you.
16 These are the ways of the world: wanting to please our sinful selves, wanting the sinful things we see, and being too proud of what we have. None of these come from the Father, but all of them come from the world.
17 The world and everything that people want in it are passing away, but the person who does what God wants lives forever.
Here is a test:
Do you love the world?
Do you love the world?
You have to look at your life and have a real conversation with yourself
The question is do you love the world more than you love God
What is meant by the world?
Does this mean that we are not to appreciate the beauty, splendor, and resources of the earth and heavens?
That’s not what scripture is talking about
We live in the earth realm, and God has given us the earth and the heavens to appreciate, and enjoy.
So the world means the earth and the heavens that are passing away.
This world is corruptible and deteriorating and will eventually be destroyed.
As a believer, you cannot become attached to the world;
You must be attached to God
You must be attached to God
We can’t love the world so much that we desire to stay here more than we desire to be with God in heaven.
See the world is a system of man-made governments and societies, some good and some bad, but none perfect.
As believers in God through Christ Jesus we must respect and be loyal to the good, but you have to reject and stand against what’s bad.
The world also means a system of sin and lust and evil and pride and rebellion against God.
The world is full of sinful people, people who are evil and full of lust and pride;
The world is full of people who are in rebellion against God.
That’s why we cannot be in love with this sinful system of the world.
I know this is hard , as a believer you can’t love this world, the possessions and pleasures of this world;
Our Love must be for God.
Our Love must be for God.
Of course, we can appreciate and enjoy the beauty and the good things of the earth and the heavens.
But we cannot be more attached to this world than we are to God.
Our eyes are to be focused upon God,
Our heart attached to God
Our love focused on God before anything else.
2 Do not be shaped by this world; instead be changed within by a new way of thinking. Then you will be able to decide what God wants for you; you will know what is good and pleasing to him and what is perfect.
31 Those who use the things of the world should not become attached to them. For this world as we know it will soon pass away.
14 For my part, I am going to boast about nothing but the Cross of our Master, Jesus Christ. Because of that Cross, I have been crucified in relation to the world, set free from the stifling atmosphere of pleasing others and fitting into the little patterns that they dictate.
19 The world would love you as one of its own if you belonged to it, but you are no longer part of the world. I chose you to come out of the world, so it hates you.
Taking The Test!
Taking The Test!
Lust - Flesh - Eyes - Pride
Lust - Flesh - Eyes - Pride
Here’s the test -
You Profess You Love God - But You Really Love The World!
I am talking to Church members
The one’s who have professed Christ, yet the scripture has to charge them to not love the world.
These are the folks who were in the church and have returned or about to return to the world.
15 Don’t love the world and what it offers. Those who love the world don’t have the Father’s love in them.
The bible says "the love of the father is not in [them]."
Here are 3 things that happen to believers that cause them to return to the world and to love the world.
1) Some begin to enjoy nature and the beauty of the earth so much that they no longer worship God regularly.
They stop the worship of God and the study of His Word in order to be out in nature fishing, golfing, hiking, camping, playing sports, and other forms of recreation out in nature.
2) Some become so involved in man's government and social organizations that they become more attached and faithful to them!
Than they do to God and His church and its mission of salvation.
3) Some become so hungry for the world and its things that they begin to return to its pleasures and possessions.
The person that Profess the love God, but really is following after the world gets caught in three sins of worldliness
1. There is the lust of the flesh.
The flesh has to do with feeling, touching, tasting, smelling, hearing, and seeing. It is the place of desires and urges.
Not that desires and urges are wrong. We all have desires and urges that helps us live healthy and normal life.
But the desires of the flesh have to be controlled.
If they are not controlled, then the flesh begins to desire and lust more and more.
There are two times when the desires and urges of the flesh are wrong: ⇒ when the flesh desires something that is directly forbidden by God.
When your flesh desires and desires and consumes and consumes, then it becomes indulgence and license.
Sins of the flesh are far more than what people usually think, far more than just the immoral sins of society.
Here’s what the bible says
19 When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures,
20 idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division,
21 envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God.
2. There is the lust of the eyes.
The eyes have to do with seeing and wanting to have what one sees.
Again, there is nothing wrong with desiring what we see. Seeing and desiring is normal.
It becomes wrong when two things happen:
⇒ When we see and desire what is directly forbidden by God.
⇒ When we see and desire in order to consume it upon our lusts and to indulge.
28 But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
⇒ There is the lust of the eyes after the things of other people.
15 Then Jesus said to them, “Be careful and guard against all kinds of greed. Life is not measured by how much one owns.”
3. There is the pride of life.
3. There is the pride of life.
This is at least two things.
First,
The pride of life means self-centeredness,
People who are focused upon themselves and wants others to notice them.
I’m talking about a person whose mind and thoughts are primarily upon themselves,
People who seek attention through dress or looks
People who seek attention through position or wealth
People who seek honor
People who seek recognition
People who seek fame
People who seek power
People who seeks to outshine other
Second,
The pride of life means self-sufficiency,
a person who is focused upon themselves and feels completely capable of handling life them self .
It is a person who feels that self-image, public image, ego and personal strength are the basis of life;
a person who feels little if any need for God.
This individual feels he or she can plow through life themselves and conquer whatever problems and circumstances confront they encounter.
They feel that this world is an end within itself, that there is probably nothing beyond this life;
therefore, it is all about the comfort, pleasure, luxury, honor, and glory that can have while their here.
The pride of life means self-sufficiency, a person who... • is arrogant • is conceited • is boastful • feels better than others because of rank or wealth • feels superior to others in looks and ability
17 You brag, ‘I’m rich, I’ve got it made, I need nothing from anyone,’ oblivious that in fact you’re a pitiful, blind beggar, threadbare and homeless.
1 Don’t brag about tomorrow, since you don’t know what the day will bring.
The person is not of God; they love the world.
To be of God means to be spiritually born of God.
To be of God means to be spiritually born of God.
It means to be born again; to be made into a new creature; to be recreated into a new man; to have the divine seed and nature of God implanted into your heart and life.
Now there is the obedient believer.
The one who does the will of God abides forever.
This person knows something: the world shall pass away.
It is important to know this, for it means that the lusts of the world will pass away as well.
⇒ The world and its lusts pass away when they die!
Every person leaves behind the world and all they have secured.
When you die you lose all of the world you have accumulated .
You will not be able to take a single pleasure or possession with you when you leave the world.
Imagine! You cannot take a single thing.
The world will have passed away from you; time will be no more—not for you, not for your pleasures or possessions.
⇒ The world and its lusts will pass away at the end of the world.
The world is to be destroyed by fire and a new heavens and earth will be created by God where only righteousness will dwell.
10 But the day of the Lord will come as unexpectedly as a thief. Then the heavens will pass away with a terrible noise, and the very elements themselves will disappear in fire, and the earth and everything on it will be found to deserve judgment.
11 Since everything around us is going to be destroyed like this, what holy and godly lives you should live,
12 looking forward to the day of God and hurrying it along. On that day, he will set the heavens on fire, and the elements will melt away in the flames.
13 But we are looking forward to the new heavens and new earth he has promised, a world filled with God’s righteousness.
This is the reason why we must turn away from the world and turn to God.
When you operate in obedience - you want God and the life God offers,
That’s a life that is both abundant and eternal.
Therefore, we must seek after the will of God, to do what God commands so that we may live with God forever.
23 Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him.
50 Obedience is thicker than blood. The person who obeys my heavenly Father’s will is my brother and sister and mother.”
24 “I tell you the truth, whoever hears what I say and believes in the One who sent me has eternal life. That person will not be judged guilty but has already left death and entered life.
14 Blessed are those who do His commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter through the gates into the city.
The bible makes it clear:
The Person who loves the world does not love God!
There is a song by Erica Campbell - Of Mary Mary
The Chorus says:
I Love God
You Don’t Love God
What’s Wrong With You
This Christmas Season - Learn To Love God through his son Jesus Christ!
This Christmas Season - Learn To Love God through his son Jesus Christ!
Next Steps
Old Testament
Ezekiel & Daniel
New Testament:
Philemon & Hebrew