HOW TO LIVE GODLY IN A CORUPT WORLD 11/11/02
We live in a time that is not like any other that I’ve seen. I know that I’m getting older even though I do not like to admit it. I can remember as a junior in High School working at a full service gas station, (you remember the ones that pumped your gas, checked your oil and tire pressure, and cleaned your windows) where gas was $.67 cents per gallon, a coke was $.25 cents, and a candy bar was a nickel. Prices weren’t the only thing that has change over the years.
The things that you see happening now days just wasn’t like that a generation ago. We have people shooting people for no apparent reason. You have kids shooting kids; you have kids growing up without both parents and some not even knowing both parents. We are letting other people raise our kids.The stay at home Mom is almost unheard of.
You have people coming out of closets and people accepting their life style.
We have gone from handing out Bibles to handing out condoms in our schools. Premarital sex is not only condoned but also considered natural. They will tell you that this is the 21st century and everyone is doing it. You have mom’s taking their daughters and putting them on birth control. Abstinence is not considered an option, but rather considered old fashioned.
The things you see on the TV now days would have never been allowed just a few years ago. The language you hear on the TV is awful and the channels are full of filth. Even the cartoons now days are filthy. I never would have thought that you would have to screen cartoons to see if they are acceptable. I not just talking about the Simpson’s, I’m talking sponge Bob square pants and Ed and Eddie. What ever happened to the Bugs Bunny & Road Runner show? When I was growing up, we had one TV, three stations (if you turned the antana) and one remote (Me, Son change the staion)Now everyone has a TV and ton’s of stations to choice from. If you remember what I said earlier about others raising our kids and you see the amount of time that they spend in front of the TV, it brings a new light to the TV being our baby siter.
You no longer have to worry about being seen going into the bookstores, with the click of a mouse in the privacy of your home you can have all the porn you want at your fingertips. The pedophiles no longer need to stock the schoolyards; they simple can stock the chat rooms.
There are two many gray areas and not enough black and white. Some would contribute this to the sixty’s, “If it feels good, do it”, attitude. We are a nation who has forgot our foundation of one Nation under God.
Is it to late? Should we pull the plug and go down the drain? Is there any hope?
1 Peter 1:3, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.”
There is Hope in our Lord Jesus. Open your Bibles with me to Isaiah 1:10-15.
I feel like I can sum this passage up in a few words. God is tired of people playing church instead of being the Church. What is the church? Is it the four walls that surround us? Is the sign on the outside or the parcel of ground we are on? No we who are Christians are the church.
1 Peter 2:4-5, “Coming to Him as to a living stone, rejected indeed of men, but chosen of God, and precious, you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.”
If you are here today and profess to be a Christian, you are the Church. You may be the only Jesus others may see. When you leave these doors today, you are leaving as a representative of not only Heritage Baptist Church, but also you are representatives of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Why is it so important for us to be a good representative of our Lord Jesus Christ? When we as Christians see other people professing one thing and living something different, they we say they are living a lie. When the lost see you doing the same thing, professing this and living that, then they just see the lie. They see the lie, because they don’t see the truth of the only true satisfaction is in a relationship with our Lord Jesus Christ. They see the lie of there is no reason for to get saved. They see them being just as good as the person claiming to be saved, so why do they need to get saved. We need to lead by example.
We say we love Him with our mouth; but in our actions we don’t reflect it.
James 2:14-20, “ What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith, and have not works? Can faith save him? If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you says to them, Depart in peace, be warmed and filled; but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body; what does it profit? Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. But someone will say, You have faith and I have works: show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. You believe
that there is one God; You do well: Even the demons believe, and tremble. But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead?”
So how are you? Are you dead? Are you in a coma? It’s not that works save you, but rather you are saved to do works.
Ephesians 2:10, “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.”
Good works the scripture says, not good looks. We you accept Jesus into your heart; you are employed and empowered to do a job, not just set around trying to look pretty.
We are the Church; Now let’s talk about some of the ways that people are playing church.
We play church by our lack of concern for reaching the lost.
We will come and we will sing a song or two and put some money in the plate when it goes by and try to stay awoke during the sermon, but to ask someone to join us. Forget it. We are comfortable in our own little world and we really don’t want to be or cause others to feel uncomfortable by inviting them to church.
We play church when our prayers don’t include others who need the Lord, when they pray it’s all about them, Lord give me this, and pray for my loved ones, me, me, me. Our prayers should always include the lost and we should lift them up by name daily.
We play church in our attendance. We will come to church most of the time, on a Sunday morning but why should I come on a Sunday night or heaven forbid a Wednesday night. Let me tell you one reason why.
Hebrews 10:25, “ Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some; but exhorting one another, and so much the more, as you see the day approaching.”
Exhorting means to come along side and inspiring another with the truth. You start getting a bunch people coming together and others will come if nothing else to see what’s going on.
I don’t think we would have room in our churches if everyone who claimed to be a member of a certain church attended on a regular bases as claimed in the obituaries. Did you ever notice that 99% of all people listed in the obituaries were a member of some church? Your name written in some obituary stating that you attend some church will not get you into heaven; only your name written in the Lambs book of Life will get you into heaven.
We play Church like our kid’s play Super Hero’s. The other day in the Nursery, we had Taylor and Bret in a fight over who was going to be Spider Man. We put on our Spiritual costume and pretend to be something we are not when we come to church or when we see some one that we want to think that we are a “Super Christian”, but when we leave or they’re not around we go back to being the real us, the Peter Parker’s.
So how can we be the church? How can we live Godly lives in a corrupt world?
Look back in Isaiah 1:16-20
In verses 16 and 17, it gives us three things to start with.
1. Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean. When you have a car and you want to give it a wax job to make it all pretty and shiny; what is the first thing that you do? Wash the car first, or else you are just waxing the dirt. As Christians we need to ask the Lord to forgive us of our sins.1 John 1:9, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
2. Put away the evil. When you ask God to forgive you of your sins then you need to do a U-turn. That is the problem with us, a lot of times we ask God to forgive us, knowing very that we will do the same sin again and we are just looking for some temporary relief of our guilt. 2 Chronicles 7:14, “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.” Do a U-turn and turn away from your wicked ways.
3. Learn to do good. How do we learn to do good? What is the best way to learn anything? You learn best from the teacher. And who is the best teacher? No one other than our Lord Jesus Christ. He taught us by example. Hebrews 4:15, “ For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.” He taught us with His teachings. Remember from the age of 12, He amazed us with His teachings. No one can teach us any better to do good any better than the Master. Always remember to pattern your Life and the decisions you make to be like Christ.
If you do these then you will learn how to live Godly in a corrupt world.
In verse 19 we find the last two conditions. Willingness and Obedience
The first thing you have to do is be willing. If I were to say that I wanted to loose some weight, which would be a great plan. But it would take me being willing to start the plan to lose the weight. Then we need to obey the plan, whether it be the exercise or the diet, before it would any thing would happen. Most of us cheat and do not obey the plans of the diet and wonder why we are not loosing any weight.
When you say I want to live a Godly life in this corrupt world, which too is a great plan. But you have to be willing to make the sacrifices to obey God and His commands to make it happen.
Do the things we’ve pointed out today and you will have a wonderful life, or eat the good of the land as our text stats in verse 19-20. Refuse and rebel then this corrupt land will devour you up.
