“This World Is Not My Home”
Supplementary notes to Part One
Note: the following is intended to supplement the notes from the previous message with the same title “This world is not my home”. Included here is a basic outline of the message and addition notes added or revised.
CPR is and invitation to life. In this series are all the basic elements of a vital walk with God.
I. Continually cultivate a dynamic relationship with Him.
II. Persistently pursue, develop and maintain meaningful community within the body of Christ.
III. Resolutely resist the world the flesh and the devil
Last week we projected a chart not included in the notes. That chart is duplicated here for your reference.
A. Renew and purify Your heart
Having addressed uncleanness in the soul, we are ready to take a firm stand against the agents who try to defile the soul. This morning I revisit the biblical direction concerning this seductive enemy called the world. Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from God’s heart. I offer you life this morning by offering you truths by which to structure your life. What does the Bible teach about the world and how are we to live?
The basic instruction regarding the evil of the world is to refuse to be conformed to it.
B. Refuse conformity with the World
1. A biblical view of the World
a. The entire universe as created by God
b. Mankind in general
c. The theater of human history
Revised definition below.
d. A devil-directed society of beings dedicated to devil-dictated philosophies, principles and practices.
Paul talks about a society of people who live by a particular philosophy which appeals to the flesh and results in specific practices we might call worldly. These all work together to capture and defile the soul that it might not reflect the nature of the one who created it and inflame the wrath of God.
For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world.
1. Lust of the flesh
This is the unbridled pursuit of what feels good, what satisfies my base passions and senses. This is the passion for and pursuit of pleasure and pleasant sensations.
2. Lust of the eyes
This is the unbridled pursuit of what looks good, what increases material wealth. The appeal is to feel important and significant through the accumulation of things. Love things and use people to gain things. This is the passion for and pursuit of possessions .
3. Pride of life
This is the unbridled pursuit of what glorifies self, what promotes self importance and significance. This is the passion for and pursuit of prestige or power. The whole world system promotes and pursues a rebellious desire to feel alive apart from dependence on God. This system of philosophies, principles and practices focus on glorifying man not God. The world deftly draws our attention to the creature rather than the creator.
It all started with Lucifer son of the morning who expressed dissatisfaction with His God appointed gifts and ministry and sought to become an equal with God. The disease infected Eve and Adam with the temptation to be like God by eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Eve saw that it was good for food, pleasant to the eye (good thing to have) and able to make one independently wise. Paul certifies the core of worldliness.
But I am afraid, lest as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds should be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ. 2 Cor. 11:3
This wicked world system perpetuates and appeals to a selfish desire for pleasure, possessions and prestige or power. The world’s value system or what it considers important is personal feelings of pleasure and happiness, accumulation of material possessions and wealth, building a personal kingdom of power and prestige and significance.
Satan tried to tempt Jesus along the very same lines.
He tempted Jesus to try to demonstrate his worth by performing a self satisfying miracle. Jesus proclaimed the Father’s principle that life is more than food. True life is found in the Word of God.
Satan tempted Jesus to demonstrate his worth and drawing attention to his importance by a self-centered display of miraculous protection. Jesus proclaimed the Father’s principle of faith, not presumption.
Satan tempted Jesus to circumvent the plan of God in order to gain the wealth of the world.
Jesus proclaimed the principle of whole hearted devotion to the Father.
Anytime we fall for the lie that genuine life may be found through the self-centered pursuit of pleasure, possessions or prestige we buy into a system contrary to God and contrary to how we were designed to function in selfless community. Worldliness begins with a belief or attitude before it blossoms into behavior. The belief that there is more to life other than what God provides and when He provides it.
The belief that life can be found apart from vital connection to God.
Believing the lies of the world, we nurse those base desires of the flesh.
The desire to be entertained and feel pleasure or avoid displeasure.
The motivation to manipulate others for personal gain.
The desire to be better or more important than someone else.
The desire to perform in order to feel worthy of more important.
The commitment to avoid rejection at all costs.
The thinking that I will make my own happiness.
The thinking that having more things or just the right clothes or going to more places will fill up that empty feeling or make up for what is lacking in genuine relationships at home or church.
This comes from a belief that life may be found through anything other than devotion to Christ.
The godly are not of this world
Our inner man, our regenerated core resists anything that distracts from community and union with God. In fact, what we believe and our core nature strongly opposes the beliefs of this world.
"If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. "If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. John 15:18-19
Jesus told Nicodemus, "That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. John 3:6
The world hates Christians
Jesus overcame the world and so do we
The final victory
When we talk about the world, we are talking about a society of people who live by certain devil-dictated philosophies, principles and practices dedicated to pursing life apart from dependence on God or relationship with Him.
It is really not that complicated. Un-regenerated man just doesn’t want to accept absolute devotion to Christ. The world resists complete devotion to Christ. The world may tolerate including God and Christ and religion in so far it enhances self, will not surrender to Him as Lord of everything. It may give God a place, but not FIRST place.
Paul warns Timothy about the philosophy of the last days.
For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God; holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; and avoid such men as these. 2 Tim. 3:2-5
We hear preaching today that promotes God as our servant and soother of all our hurts and when He doesn’t come through we are angry.
For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires; and will turn away their ears from the truth, and will turn aside to myths. 2 Tim. 4:3-4
Anything that promotes a pleasure, possession, prestige based view of life maintains roots in the world and is of the world. Life based on these things only promotes selfish ambition and jealousy. Anything that promotes devotion to self and prevents devotion to Christ is of the world. Jesus said, “as those who identify with Him in the very core of our being are in the world but we are not to be of it. What does that kind of “in but not of” relationship look like?
2. Biblical instruction concerning our relationship with the World
Don’t be partners with the world but be separate as light and salt
Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts, which wage war against the soul. Keep your behavior excellent among the Gentiles, so that in the thing in which they slander you as evildoers, they may on account of your good deeds, as they observe them, glorify God in the day of visitation. 1 Peter 2:11-12
Today appears to be little difference between those who call themselves Christian and those who deny Christ. The church adopts the very same attitudes, same man-centered philosophy, same base pursuits of pleasure, possessions and power, same self glorification and selfish ambition as the world. Will you dare to be different? Will you dare to demonstrate a devotion to Christ that makes a difference in this world.
Be God’s salt and light in Satan’s tasteless dark world
How different do we really look from the world’s way of doing things?
But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart, do not be arrogant and so lie against the truth. This wisdom is not that which comes down from above, but is of the earth, soulish, demonic. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every evil thing. James 3:14-16
Does our worldly walk block the light of our godly talk from lighting someone’s way?
If value pleasure, possessions and prestige as the highest value, we are no different than the world system that binds people today.
Even the church can fall victim to appeal to the base desires of the flesh for pleasure, possession, and prestige in order to get people to come to Christ. This kind of appeal produces a worldly church not a church of people dedicated to serve Christ with their whole heart.
Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world. James 1:27
Do not love the world or the things in it but seek first the kingdom of God.
Those who pursue life apart from God will pass away.
Eventually all the stuff with which we fill our life will deteriorate and disappear
One day the only group left will be those wholly devoted to God.
Only those committed to live according to the ways of God will really live.
Don’t love the world or its stuff.
Don’t be friendly with the world or it’s ideas.
We must assume a hostile position against the philosophies, principles and practices of this world no matter where they turn up. We cannot embrace a world system bent on opposing everything that God stands for and honestly pursue a deep relationship with God at the same time.
Because pleasurable sensations, happiness and entertainment is a higher value than eternal truth we so often tolerate and even enjoy so many things that are strongly opposed to the principles of God’s kingdom. You can’t have it both ways. You can only truly serve one master. Don’t love this world or the things in it. Don’t try to maintain a friendly relationship with the world but seek first God’s kingdom which does not consist of material things or eating and drinking but joy and peace in the Spirit.
Do not be captivated by the world’s philosophy and practices but be crucified to the world and be transformed in your thinking by Christ
What kind of hold does the world have over you through its teaching or its empty promises? You may want to serve God. You may desire to grow in Christ. As long as you allow the chains of this world to continue to bind you, you cannot serve God.
Expose the world’s evil with God’s truth.
Overcome the world’s evil with faith and God’s good.
Conclusion
Mankind continues such a hopeless quest right to this day and do will so to the very end.
Revelation describes the destruction of the Great city Babylon which symbolizes godless, materialistic pursuit of significance. John records two very different responses to its destruction. I wonder which on we would be our response? The people of the world mourn the destruction of man’s highest achievement independent of God. The people of God and the angelic beings shout:
After these things I heard, as it were, a loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, saying,
"Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God; BECAUSE HIS JUDGMENTS ARE TRUE AND RIGHTEOUS; for He has judged the great harlot who was corrupting the earth with her immorality, and HE HAS AVENGED THE BLOOD OF HIS BOND-SERVANTS ON HER." And a second time they said, "Hallelujah! HER SMOKE RISES UP FOREVER AND EVER." And the twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God who sits on the throne saying, "Amen. Hallelujah!" Rev. 19:1-4
Abraham, by faith, abandoned a city made by the ingenuity of man to inherit a city whose builder and maker was God.
Application
Look at your lifestyle.
Does your lifestyle reflect one who is fully devoted to Christ?
Does your lifestyle reflect one who is captivated by the pursuit of pleasure, possessions and prestige?
What “lights my fire”? Temporal toys, eternal treasure?
Do we envy those who have things and power and live such a life style?
Psalm 73:1-28
Is that your sentiment? Perhaps we need more frequent trips to the sanctuary of God for a dose of eternal perspective. Satan designed this world to stress the temporal and scorn the eternal. Live for the now.
God identified the sin of Sodom and Gommorah to Ezekiel
"As I live," declares the Lord GOD, "Sodom, your sister, and her daughters, have not done as you and your daughters have done. "Behold, this was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had
arrogance, abundant food, and careless ease, but she did not help the poor and needy. "Thus they were haughty and committed abominations before Me. Therefore I removed them when I saw it. "Furthermore, Samaria did not commit half of your sins, for you have multiplied your abominations more than they. Thus you have made your sisters appear righteous by all your abominations which you have committed. Ezekiel 16:48-51
What does God consider worse than the sin of Sodom and Gommorah? Failure to serve God and God alone. Seeking life from sources other than God alone. Holding to a form of godliness but denying the real power of a holy devoted life.
God holds out an invitation to real life that has become rare in our age.
Moody said, “the world has never seen what God will do through a person wholly devoted to Him. By God’s grace I want to be that man.” Satan continually energizes a society of people dedicated to the lie that meaning in life is realized through a life dedicated to the satisfaction of the unquenchable fallen desires entrenched in our flesh.
The flesh is unquenchable.
The flesh is unredeemable.
The flesh is unmanageable.
The flesh is unimprovable.
We are called to fight against Satan and his world, as well as the desires of the flesh.
In order to do that, God energizes a society of his own called the church, which is called to expose evil and follow the desires of the regenerated spirit which wars against the flesh.
We are called to draw attention to what is eternal and good in the reborn spirit and release it in a world driven by the self-centered passions of the flesh.
Church is boring you say.
Spiritual things are boring you declare.
Such a declaration only indicates a flesh centered life bound by the philosophies, principles and practices of this devil directed world. You have become more concerned with what appeals to the flesh than the spirit.
You are pursuing life on a fleshly plane that will never satisfy.
Never enough entertainment.
never enough “fun” times.
Never enough vacations.
Never enough video games.
Never enough movies.
Never enough sexual experiences.
Never enough things.
Never enough notoriety or fame.
Never enough money.
Never enough.
The flesh is never satisfied
Only when God is our source of life can we experience true satisfaction and meaning in life. We can’t have it both ways.
As we practice CPR we will begin to see develop a group of truly righteous people through whom He may impact a world.
A group of people who are in this world but not of it.
A group of people who are the salt of the earth.
A group of people who are lights in a dark world
A group of people purified by Christ and called to proclaim the excellencies of Him who called us out of darkness into light.
Only as we deepen our commitment to Christ and keep our eyes on He who is the author and perfecter of faith will we accomplish this. So let us turn our eyes upon Him.
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace.
Let us determine to become completely devoted to God and God alone.
Review this week
Review some of the major passages when you have more time to think about them.
Make sure you understand the definition of the “world” in the evil sense of the word.
Do you really understand the basic core or “worldliness”?
Does my life revolve around fleshly passions or spiritual passions?
Pleasure and pleasurable sensations, possessions, power or prestige.
Review the biblical instructions concerning our relationship with the world.
How does my lifestyle measure up to these Biblical admonitions?
Don’t be partners with the world but be separate as light and salt.
In what ways am a linked to the world.
Does my life draw attention to a unique restored relationship with God?
Do not love the world of it’s things or be friendly with the world but seek first the kingdom of God
Take a moment to ask God HIS take on my relationship with the world.
Ask Him to expose the areas where my devotion to the world is greater than to Christ.
Do not be captivated by the world’s philosophy and practices but be crucified to it and it to me.
I someone were to come live with us for a week, what would they conclude our values were in light of our practices?
Is my thinking any different than those of the world?
Does my talk revolved around pleasure, possessions and prestige or Christ?
Expose the worlds evil.
Do I stand up for what is right before God?
Do I get involved with speaking the truth when directed by God?
Do I vote according to what is right before God or desired by men?
Over come evil with good.
In what was does my lifestyle reflect the goodness of God?
