Improving Your Relationship With God Part 1

SAILING @ LIFE Part 3

“Improving Your Relationships With God”

Pastor Jeff Seaman

We have been in a series called “SAILING @ LIFE” and today I want to start the first part on relationships. When you look at life as a hole, its all about relationships, and if we are going to sail @ life we must know how to have great relationships, and how to fix the one that have been hurt or have died.

So today I want to start on our relationship with God for I believe that if we can keep our relationship with God healthy we stand a better chance at keeping healthy relationships with others. So I titled my sermon “Improving Your Relationship With God”

So many Christians today don’t understand that the Bible warns us that the Devil will try any thing to get us to not build up our relationship with God. The Devil fears some one who has a strong relationship with God. You see there are people who are known in Hell, and are feared, because they walk with God on a daily.

Eph. 6:10-11 “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes.

Today I want us to look at the very first relationship that the devil had his scheme working on, and see what caused the brake down. We today are still having relationship problem with God, and we need to understand what is causing it, and what is the result when thing come in between God and us.

I Peter 5:8 “Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.

Jesus told Peter once Luke 22:31 “Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift you as wheat.”

Church we must understand that the devil is looking for way to break our relationships with God, let us not just blink at the warnings that Jesus told the church.

Let us look at some of the schemes the devil uses to try and hinder or even destroy our relationships with God

SCHEMES THAT CAN KILL YOUR RELATIONSHIP

I want to look closely at some of the schemes that the devil uses on us and how it affects us. When the devil is trying to destroy our relationships with God you need to know that he works over time so that you and I don’t realize what is happening, just like you can boil a frog to death. This will be a three week part on Improving Your Relationship With God.

We will look at three of the most common one that we see today.

WORLDLINESS, SIN, and DISTRACTIONS

1. THE FIST SCHEME IS BECOMING WORLDLY

Most people have stopped using the Susan B. Anthony dollar that was first issued a few decades ago. The problem was that the Anthony dollar looked and felt so mush like a quarter that people kept getting them confused.

A worldly Christian causes similar confusion. A worldly Christian is so immersed in this world and the world’s way of thinking that people can’t tell whether he’s the real thing or not.

The scheme of worldliness is one of his masterpieces, because it cripples the church and our relationship with God.

Rom 12:1-2 “Therefore, I urge you, brothers in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God – this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is –his good, pleasing and perfect will.”

James 4:4-7 “You people aren’t faithful to God! Don’t you know that if you love the world, you are God’s enemies? And if you decide to be a friend of the world, you make yourself an enemy of God. Do you doubt the Scriptures that say, God truly cares about the Spirit he has put in us? In fact, God treats us with even greater kindness, just as the Scripture say, God oppose everyone who is proud, but he is kind to everyone who is humble.” Vs. 7 “Surrender to God! Resist the devil, and he will run from you.”

The Bible warns us not to become a friend of the world and not to adopt the spirit of this age. Paul called it in:

Eph. 2:2 “The spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience”

Definition of worldliness: Worldliness is that attitude of a Christian’s heart that reflects the spirit of this age, the attitude and values of a system that is spear headed by the devil. This system is characterized by thoughts and actions that exclude God.