Fellowship With God - Overcoming The World - (Part 4 Of 5)

Title: Increased Fellowship With God - Overcoming The World

Text: I John 2:15-17

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Introduction:

Addressing a national seminar of Southern Baptist leaders, George Gallup said, "We find there is very little difference in ethical behavior between churchgoers and those who are not active religiously...The levels of lying, cheating, and stealing are remarkable similar in both groups. Eight out of ten Americans consider themselves Christians, Gallup said, yet only about half of them could identify the person who gave the Sermon on the Mount, and fewer still could recall five of the Ten Commandments. Only two in ten said they would be willing to suffer for their faith.

- Overcoming the world can be easier said then done.

- Overcoming the world is a life time process, that must be faced with desire.

- Desire for God.

- To have increased fellowship with God we need to overcome the world in our lives.

- To be successful in overcoming the world, one must overcome worldly passions one at a time.

- Success is not about reaching goals but achieving what you no you are to become.

- As a Christian, it is allowing the will of God to be perfected in your life.

- And the only way that will be done is overcoming the world in your life.

Transition:

- So what is the world and how does one overcome the world?

- The term world refers to the vast system of this age that satan promotes and that exists independent of God.

- The world can best be described this way: "If I had a brother who had been murdered, what would you think of me if I ...daily consorted with the assassin who drove the dagger into my brother’s heart; surely I too must be an accomplice in the crime. Sin murdered Christ; will you be a friend to it? Sin pierced the heart of the Incarnate God; can you love it?"

- Living for the world is going with the flow and turning a deaf ear and a blind eye to the things we see.

- The comforts and pleasures people enjoy from sin, is what we need to avoid. Pleasure and comfort will come but it must come from God first above all else.

- So how do all of us overcome the world? I have 3 points that will help us in this process.

Point 1: No Who You Love of No Where Your Love Lies (vs 15)

Jer 2:25 says, “Do not run until your feet are bare and your throat is dry. But you said, It’s no use! I love foreign gods, and I must go after them.”

- Serving God is not an impossibility, but it’s not always going to be easy.

- The Bible says, Whoever wishes to follow me, must deny himself, pick up his cross and follow me.

- Serving God can be hard and difficult, because God wants us to change and become more like Him.

- All of us have the world in us to some to degree that needs to change and come under the submission of Christ.

- Attitudes, passions and lifestyles must change and become more like Christ.

- But understand we will never be perfect in this life, and therefore must strive to become more like Jesus.

I was attending a junior stock show when a grand-champion lamb, owned by a little girl, was being auctioned. As the bids reached five dollars per pound, the little girl, standing beside the lamb in the arena, began to cry. At ten dollars, the tears were streaming down her face and she clasped her arms tightly around the lamb’s neck. The higher the bids rose, the more she cried. Finally, a local businessman bought the lamb for more than $1000, but then announced that he was donating it to the little girl. The crowd applauded and cheered.

Months later, I was judging some statewide essays when I came across one from a girl who told about the time her grand-champion lamb had been auctioned. “The prices began to get so high during the bidding,” she wrote, “that I started to cry from happiness.” She continued with: “The man who bought the lamb for so much more than I ever dreamed I would get returned the lamb to me, and when I got home, Daddy barbecued the lamb—and it was really delicious.”

- This little girl new what she loved. She loved the money and the thought of how much she would get.

- She was not concerned about the lamb, but was using the lamb to gain pleasure in this life.

- No who you love, either love the world or love God.

- If we love God, don’t profess it only, but live it.