Our Faith Is On A Collision Course With The World Series

Introduction

For the past several weeks, we have been looking at how we are to prepare for the end times considering two men, Enoch and Noah, and how they prepared for the end in their day by a great flood. We, who live on this side of the cross, are preparing for the second end time which will be by fire, and these two Old Testament saints helped to show us how to prepare.

And today we are continuing our study of the end times but from a little different angle. When we talked about Enoch and Noah, we learned how we should be living as the end time approaches. Today, we are going to look at what we should be guarding at all costs as the end times nears. The end times is going to try to steal something from us.

And we need to pay careful attention to this series because it is Jesus, Himself, who tells us what we need to be guarding as the end time approaches. First, let me read to you the Scripture from Luke 18:8.

8 ... when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?”

Jesus is telling you and me that as we approach the time of His return, there will be things on a collision course with our faith, and we better maneuver to avoid the collision. But unfortunately, many Christians will not maneuver, and their faith will be involved in those collisions, and their faith will suffer.

The first one that we are going to look at is the world. The world has run head on into the faith of many Christians, and the world has won. What do we as Christians need to do to avoid those collisions and maintain a rock-solid faith?

Point #1

To avoid a collision with the world, I got to know in my heart that the values of this world do not line up with the values of my faith. So, I need to put the world values in their proper place which is behind my faith values.

(15) Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. 1 John 2:15 - NIV

(33) But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Matthew 6:33 - NIV

From these two passages of Scripture, the proper place for the values or things of this world is behind the things of God. The values of this world will never bring you closer to God; they will only push you further away from God. The values of this world may try to disguise themselves as the same as the values of God, but they never are. And these values of the world want to raise their ugly head and come before the things of God. Let me show how the values of the world are trying to take first place.

In the past, you never had kids ball leagues play ball on Wednesday night or Sunday morning, but now Wednesday night and Sunday morning are part of their regular league schedule. The world has set itself on a head on collision with our faith.

In the past, on Sundays they had something called the "blue laws" which restricted businesses from opening on Sunday and prevented patrons from shopping so that the day can be reserved for worship. Today, on Sunday, people can go shopping at Wal Mart, Target, Dollar General until it's time for the department stores to open. The world has set itself on a head on collision with our faith.

With Covid 19, there is another way the world has set itself on a collision course with our faith. Churches started to use Facebook and other means to broadcast messages. People even with the Covid 19 had the opportunity to do church. But, according to Barna Research one out of every three Christians who were attending church prior to Covid 19 are not attending services any longer, not in person, not on Facebook, not anywhere. Covid 19 hit faith head on and in many cases faith lost.

You and I must understand the things of God must come first in our life and then everything else follows. We must ask ourselves is what I am planning to do going to take precedent over my faith, or does my faith win in this situation?

Get mad at me, but faith must always win.

Point #2

I got to know in my heart if I am pursing the values of the world over the values of God that I am chasing after a moving target; but if I am pursing the values of God I am chasing after something that is unchanging.