Title: Increased Fellowship With God - Overcoming The World
Text: I John 2:15-17
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Introduction:
Addressing a national seminar of Southern Baptist leaders, George Gallup said, "We find there is very little difference in ethical behavior between churchgoers and those who are not active religiously...The levels of lying, cheating, and stealing are remarkable similar in both groups. Eight out of ten Americans consider themselves Christians, Gallup said, yet only about half of them could identify the person who gave the Sermon on the Mount, and fewer still could recall five of the Ten Commandments. Only two in ten said they would be willing to suffer for their faith.
- Overcoming the world can be easier said then done.
- Overcoming the world is a life time process, that must be faced with desire.
- Desire for God.
- To have increased fellowship with God we need to overcome the world in our lives.
- To be successful in overcoming the world, one must overcome worldly passions one at a time.
- Success is not about reaching goals but achieving what you no you are to become.
- As a Christian, it is allowing the will of God to be perfected in your life.
- And the only way that will be done is overcoming the world in your life.
Transition:
- So what is the world and how does one overcome the world?
- The term world refers to the vast system of this age that satan promotes and that exists independent of God.
- The world can best be described this way: "If I had a brother who had been murdered, what would you think of me if I ...daily consorted with the assassin who drove the dagger into my brother’s heart; surely I too must be an accomplice in the crime. Sin murdered Christ; will you be a friend to it? Sin pierced the heart of the Incarnate God; can you love it?"
- Living for the world is going with the flow and turning a deaf ear and a blind eye to the things we see.
- The comforts and pleasures people enjoy from sin, is what we need to avoid. Pleasure and comfort will come but it must come from God first above all else.
- So how do all of us overcome the world? I have 3 points that will help us in this process.
Point 1: No Who You Love of No Where Your Love Lies (vs 15)
Jer 2:25 says, “Do not run until your feet are bare and your throat is dry. But you said, It’s no use! I love foreign gods, and I must go after them.”
- Serving God is not an impossibility, but it’s not always going to be easy.
- The Bible says, Whoever wishes to follow me, must deny himself, pick up his cross and follow me.
- Serving God can be hard and difficult, because God wants us to change and become more like Him.
- All of us have the world in us to some to degree that needs to change and come under the submission of Christ.
- Attitudes, passions and lifestyles must change and become more like Christ.
- But understand we will never be perfect in this life, and therefore must strive to become more like Jesus.
I was attending a junior stock show when a grand-champion lamb, owned by a little girl, was being auctioned. As the bids reached five dollars per pound, the little girl, standing beside the lamb in the arena, began to cry. At ten dollars, the tears were streaming down her face and she clasped her arms tightly around the lamb’s neck. The higher the bids rose, the more she cried. Finally, a local businessman bought the lamb for more than $1000, but then announced that he was donating it to the little girl. The crowd applauded and cheered.
Months later, I was judging some statewide essays when I came across one from a girl who told about the time her grand-champion lamb had been auctioned. “The prices began to get so high during the bidding,” she wrote, “that I started to cry from happiness.” She continued with: “The man who bought the lamb for so much more than I ever dreamed I would get returned the lamb to me, and when I got home, Daddy barbecued the lamb—and it was really delicious.”
- This little girl new what she loved. She loved the money and the thought of how much she would get.
- She was not concerned about the lamb, but was using the lamb to gain pleasure in this life.
- No who you love, either love the world or love God.
- If we love God, don’t profess it only, but live it.
- Obediance to God is one way we show ourselves, others and most importantly God that our desires lie with Him.
- You will desire one or the other, there is no in between. Everybody has passions and is passionate towards something. Be passionate towards God and what He wants for you life.
Point 2: No what comes from the Father and Live By It. (Vs 16)
- Pride, arrogance and selfishness does not come from God
- Luke 6:43-45 says, “No good tree bears bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit. Each tree is recognized by it’s own fruit. People do not pick figs from thornbushes, or grapes from briers. The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks.”
- Now we no from our scripture that a good tree cannot produce bad fruit nor can a bad tree produce good fruit.
- Meaning evil actions will not produce godly results. Nor will godly motives produce evil results.
- Our heart is the center of our being, it determines our outward behavior and therefore must be changed to be more like Jesus.
The Bible says in Jer 24:7, “I will give them a heart to know me, that I am the Lord. They will be my people, and I will be their God, for they will return to me with all their heart.”
- So how do we no the attitudes in us come from God?
- By doing the Will of God for our lives. Which is obeying the law, and commands of God found in His Word. And by following God’s plan for your life.
- Now the world’s passions are Pride, Arrogance, and Selfishness.
- We are flirting with the world when we live our lives, govern our choices and actions by these three passions.
- Don’t let your decisions be governed these 3 attitudes, but rather let our decisions be governed by the will of God.
- For example: You can never go wrong by living a humble life. Thinking of others first before yourself.
- My encouragement to you this morning is desire to produce good fruit.
Point 3: No The Difference Between True Hope And False Hope
Hebrews 12:27 says, “The words once more indicate the removing of what can be shaken that is, created things, so that what cannot be shaken may remain.”
- Everything this worlds stands for, will one day pass away. (Emphsize how earthly things will pass away and how we can’t take them with us when we die)
- The things that will be shaken is what the world offers. False peace, security, comfort etc. Now, there are forms of peace and security that we all experience, but if it’s based on worldly ambitions (vs 16) then it will one day pass away and be shaken.
- What cannot be shaken is the Word of God.
- You can never go wrong by obeying the Word of God and living by it.
- There is nothing wrong with making preparations for the future but it can be so easy to get caught in the trap of self reliance.
- We need to keep our priorities in order and always realize it will one day pass away.
- Lets use our resources to grow the Kingdom of God and not our own Kingdom.
- No the difference between true hope and false hope.
- The Bible says doing the will of God is the most important thing a person can do, regardless if they believe it or not.
- I like this story to help us understand how saints of God’s lives are shaken, but how true hope cannot be shaken and removed. Listen to this story:
“Here it appears either Paul or Barnabas went too far. It must have been a violent disagreement to separate two associates who were so closely united. Indeed, the text indicates as much.
“Such examples are written for our consolation: for it is a great comfort to us to hear that great saints, who have the Spirit of God, also struggle. Those who say that saints do not sin would deprive us of this comfort.
“Samson, David, and many other celebrated men full of the Holy Spirit fell into grievous sins. Job and Jeremiah cursed the day of their birth; Elijah and Jonah were weary of life and desired death.
“No one has ever fallen so grievously that he may not rise again. Conversely, no one stands so firmly that he may not fall. If Peter (and Paul and Barnabas) fell, I too may fall. If they rose again, I too may rise again.”
- Our lives will be shaken, but if we have true hope and tasted it, we will get back up just like these saints.
- Take courage you have something worth getting up for.
Conclusion:
- I would like to conclude with this story:
A study conducted by The Roper Organization for High Adventure Ministries in 1990 found that the moral behavior of born again Christians actually worsened after their conversions. Examined were incidences of illegal drug use, driving while intoxicated and marital infidelity.
The problem can be solved, says one researcher, with a new commitment to accountability and discipleship.
- This morning my challenge to you and me is that we commit ourselves to growing in God and not worldliness.
- There is only true joy, peace and comfort from God in this life and in the life to come.
The course of rebellion against God may be very gradual, but it increases in rapidity as you progress in it; and if you begin to run down the hill, the ever-increasing impetus will send you down faster and faster to destruction. You Christians ought to watch against the beginning of worldly conformity. I do believe that the growth of worldliness is like strife, which is as the letting out of water. Once you begin, there is no knowing where you will stop.
I sometimes get this question put to me, concerning certain worldly amusements, “May I do so-and-so?” I am very sorry whenever anyone asks me that question, because it shows that there is something wrong, or it would not be raised at all. If a person’s conscience lets him say, “Well, I can go to A,” he will very soon go on to B, C, D, E, and through all the letters of the alphabet…
When Satan cannot catch us with a big sin, he will try a little one. It does not matter to him as long as he catches his fish, what bait he uses. Beware of the beginning of evil, for many, who bade fair to go right, have turned aside and perished amongst the dark mountains in the wide field of sin.
