Spectrum
Series: Turn on the light
Sunday Sermon / November 18th 2007
Intro: Have you noticed yet that different people see the world differently? Sometimes these differences cause serious clashes and even wars. Democrats and Republicans, white collar and blue collar, one race from another, one religion from another and even children and adults see our world very differently. Different people can look at the same thing but see something completely different.
We have all seen the marvel of the Rainbow. The rainbow is God’s promise to never destroy the Earth again with water. The rainbow is a promise.
“The word spectrum was introduced into optics, referring to the range of colors observed when white light was dispersed through a prism...Violet at one end has the shortest wavelength and red at the other end has the longest wavelength of visible light. The colors in order are violet, blue, green, yellow, orange, red. As the wavelengths get bigger below the red visible light they become infrared, microwave, and radio. As the wavelengths get smaller above violet light, they become ultra-violet, x-ray, and gamma ray.”
A black light enables us to see things we are unable to see otherwise. The wavelengths our eyes are designed to see are limited. Other living things in God’s creation are able to see different wavelengths. Bees for example and other insects are able to see Ultraviolet. Therefore, their perception of the world is quit different. Snakes see in infrared, the “light” put off from heat. We simply don’t see it.
2 Corinthians 4:18 Since we consider and look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen; for the things that are visible are temporal (brief and fleeting), but the things that are invisible are deathless and everlasting.
Text: 1 John 2:8 “…the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining…”
I. God enables His children to see a whole New World
a. A new perspective on life and a new light. God’s children see the world very differently.
i. John sees the world in darkness and light. No middle ground
ii. The Kingdom of God OR the kingdom of Satan.
iii. Different pursuits, goal and passions.
b. When you walk in the light as he is in the light…you see the world completely different.
i. It may appear to the world as foolishness
John 1:5 NKJV “And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.”
Text: 1 John 2:12-17
12I am writing to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven for his name’s sake.
13I am writing to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning.
I am writing to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one.
I write to you, children, because you know the Father.
14I write to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning.
I write to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you and you have overcome the evil one.
II. We grow in our perception
a. New Christians - Little children (sins are forgiven / you know the Father)
i. Immature, new, just starting out.
ii. There is difference between an immature 5 year old and an immature 50 years old.
iii. Little children are expected to make mistakes and they are expected to grow
iv. Things are all new
v. How many here have only been a Christian for a short amount of time, 1 or 2 years?
vi. This is the “just starting to learn” stage of spiritual growth.
vii. What is most important at this stage?
1. Your sins are forgiven
2. You have been introduced to your new Father
viii. Does this person have a mastery of the Scripture?
ix. Does this person have a mastery of walking in the Light as He is in the Light?
x. No and No. But they are learning.
xi. Their former life is no too distant. (pains and perceptions)
xii. Main characteristic: They have learned of and accepted God’s Love for them.
b. Mature Christians - Fathers (You know Him who is from the beginning)
i. The fathers of are mature believers who have an intimate personal knowledge of God
ii. Stable, confident and not given to sin. Sin no longer reigns in them.
iii. They not only know about God they know God.
iv. They LOVE God (This is John major point!!!)
v. They are strong in the faith; strong in their convictions, they have learned wisdom in living and are mentoring others.
vi. These are leaders and good examples of solid Christians.
vii. Their lives aren’t perfect but they know Him who is from the Beginning.
viii. These people are desperately needed in the Church today.
c. Young Christians - Young men (you are strong, and the word of God abides in you and you have overcome the evil one.)
i. Really coming along / growing stronger and stronger in their faith.
ii. Main Characteristics: Growing in Love for God and decrease in affection for the world
iii. Spiritual growth is transforming their lives.
Notice: the Word of God abides in you
iv. A Christian’s spiritual growth is dependant on the Word of God.
v. The study and implementation of the Scripture is vital.
People who don’t know God still want to have heaven. But they have no hope of God’s heaven, so their life’s work is to create their own version of heaven.
We live in the day and age of a million bibles. That is small “b”
• The Style Bible: The 11 Rules for Building a Complete and Timeless Wardrobe
• The Cat Bible: Everything Your Cat Expects You to Know
• The Cannabis Grow Bible: The Definitive Guide to Growing Marijuana for Recreational and Medical Use.
• The Body Shape Bible
They come in the form of magazines and newspapers. Magazines are the “how to have happiness; how to achieve you individual heaven here on earth.”
They even have their own tenants of faith and ideas of heaven.
• Live Your Best Life: A Treasury of Wisdom, Wit, Advice, Interviews, and Inspiration from Oprah.
• Cosmo Girl: 50 ways to get sexy hair; five moves to a hotter body; and what your boyfriend tells his friends after you ‘hook up’
Some people’s idea of heaven is a faster car, better computer, games, wine, beer, a better body, better fashion, popularity, celebrity, a fine cigar, the list goes on and on.
vi. The reality of just how serious the battle is between Light and darkness comes into view.
vii. Satan really is trying to destroy me, but by God’s Light and truth we overcome the evil one.
1. In our minds
2. In our desires
3. In our actions
The “young men,” then are not yet fully mature; but they are maturing, for they use the Word of God effectively. The Word is the only weapons that will defeat Satan.
Text: 1 John 2:15-17 “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16For all that is in the world— the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions—is not from the Father but is from the world. 17And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.
III. We want what we look at
Do not love the world or the things in the world.
Dave Ramsey points out, “We are the most marketed to society that has ever existed.”
a. The ‘world’ is a system of beliefs, ideals and pursuits.
People use the word world all the time in the sense of a system. We will often here about the “World of Sports”, “the world of finance”, or the “world of politics.” We don’t mean that these are each separate planets. But they are separate systems, each with their own sets of terminology, experts and followers.
i. Loving the world (Thoughts and ideals)
ii. Loving the things in the world (Pursuits and desires)
A Christian is a member of the human world, and he lives in the physical world, but he does not belong to the spiritual world that is Satan’s system for opposing God.
It is a good thing for a boat to be in the water; a terrifying thing when the water is in the boat.
A practical definition of worldliness: anything in a Christian’s life that causes him to lose his enjoyment of the Father’s love or his desire to do the Father’s will is worldly and must be avoided.
Mark Driscol, Worldliness in the Bible does not mean that Christians are to abstain from culture, but rather that we should abstain from the ways of thinking, valuing, and behaving that are contrary to God’s will, as revealed in Scripture. John describes worldliness as the cravings of our sinful flesh (gluttony, sexual perversion, drunkenness, etc.), lust of our eyes (sexual lust, coveting, etc.), and arrogant pride that causes us to boast in ourselves without ever thanking God.
There are many things that God clearly identifies as sin. Yet at other times issues arise which even the best Christians disagree. In such cases, each believer must apply the test to his own life and be scrupulously honest in his self-examination, remembering that even a good thing may rob a believer of his enjoyment of God’s love and his desire to do God’s will.
Two tests of worldliness.
• Responding to the Father’s love (your personal devotional life)
• Doing the Father’s will (Your daily conduct)
To the extent that a Christian loves the world system and the things in it, he does not love the Father. Worldliness not only affects your response to the love of God; it also affects your response to the will of God.
A person’s pursuit/actions give away their attitudes. The attitudes give away their heart. Their heart gives away their eternity.
• A person holding a grudge is pursuing vengeance.
• A person driven to make more and more money is driven by greed, or insecurity or low self-esteem…etc.
• A person driven by the sensual nature is driven lusts. They searching for a physical pleasure or emotional security.
• The man or woman in pursuit of God’s love is in pursuit of God’s Kingdom.
b. God offers something better
17And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.
Colossians 1: 12 giving thanks to the Father, who has made us fit for sharing the portion of the saints in light, 13 who has delivered us from the authority of darkness, and translated us into the kingdom of the Son of his love: 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins;
i. God offers us Love; the world offers Lust
ii. God offers us Peace; the world offers instability
iii. God offers us Joy; the world offers addiction.
iv. God offers us eternal life; the world offers a life of struggle that ends in complete loss.
Weirsbe, “A Christian who loves the world will never have peace or security because he has linked his life with that which is in a state of flux.”
Conclusion: Do you want to pursue the eternal? Or continue to pursue the temporal?
Have your pursuits eclipsed God’s Light in your heart?
Christians must decide, ‘Will I live for the present only, or will I live for the will of God and abide forever?”
In pursuing one, you for forfeit the other.
