Fatal Attraction
1 John 2:15-17
Several years ago there was a movie entitled "Fatal Attraction" in which a man finds himself attracted to another woman. He yields to this temptation, no doubt thinking that it will be a brief encounter. Instead, he finds himself trapped in an affair that threatens to destroy his entire life.
Why is it that we are attracted to the very things which can destroy us? Is it because we like to take risks? Is it because we like dangerous excitement? Is it because we’re just plain stupid? Whatever it is, it is true that we are attracted to things that can destroy us. I suppose that we think that the thrill is worth it. How else can you explain bungee jumping otherwise?
Unfortunately, Christians are attracted to the world and worldliness in much the same way. This is why we have this command not to love the world. It is there not to inhibit our adventurous spirit, but to save us from a world of grief.
When I was going up in the 70’s there was a lot of talk in the church world about worldliness. Meaning living, acting, and talking like the world, instead of living, acting, and talking like Christ.. And if you were called worldly that was a very bad thing. This was the tail end of the conservative Christian movement. Where conformity to outward moral norms was expected. The key word is outward. This was the days of preaching on the four H’s. Hair, Hemlines, Hose, and Helivision. I admit there was excesses. It focus primarily on women’s dress. They were to wear dresses or culottes, no jewelry, makeup, and no cutting your hair. Men had to wear long sleve shirts, no shorts, tank tops etc. However, the pendulum has swung to so called internal holiness, that doesn’t affect the external at all. In the name of tolerance, and not judging we have abandoned all standards of holiness. I am using Holiness as the exact opposite of worldliness.
Gallup Poll
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.
Erwin Lutzer, Pastor to Pastor, p. 76
Now you can be a Christian and no one could tell unless you told them. We will not be judged by what other Christians thought, what the church taught, or what you thought was right and wrong. We will be judged by God by one thing the Bible. God’s written revelation of what he expects of us. This message came out of my own meditation on 1 John 2:15 and two cross reference scriptures on the topic (James 4:4, Romans 12:2)
I Don’t Love the World (or you don’t love God)
Stop loving this evil world and all that it offers you, for when you love the world, you show that you do not have the love of the Father in you. NLT
Don’t love the world’s ways. Don’t love the world’s goods. Love of the world squeezes out love for the Father. The Message
15Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him NIV
One man wrote as a little boy I remember playing hide-and-go-seek one day with my friends. For some unknown reason they stopped playing and did something else while I was still hiding. I was sad enough to weep. Over the years I thought about my emotions on that day. I had almost cried because my friends did not come to find me. You know, life is like a game of hide-and-go-seek between God and us. Only it is God who is weeping, because we have stopped playing the game. God is waiting to be found, but we have gone off in search of the world and are no longer searching for God. That’s criminal: that’s worldliness.
a. What is the world? Not world of People, God so loved the World, Not world of Creation normally,
b. What does it offer? Three categories listed
These are not from God.
c. What is the big deal? ( it show you don’t love God)
d. Why is loving the world foolish? V17 (It is not going to last)
Sometimes we use the terminology, “a worldly Christian.” But that’s really a misnomer when you think about it. Billy Sunday, used to make fun of the term “worldly Christian.” He said, “Why to talk about a worldly Christian makes about as much sense as talking about a heavenly Devil.” When you see a person who claims to know Jesus as their Savior, and yet their lifestyle resembles the world more than it resembles the lifestyle of a believer, then you have a reason to question whether of not that person has really had an experience with the Lord Jesus Christ.
How do you know if you love the world? (I asked God)
God will test you as he did Abraham and Sacrafice of Isaac
-When the things of God and the things of the world collide which do you choose?
-Abraham several times -Egypt
-Three Hebrew Children, Daniel and Lions
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Mine
-As a teen I had to choose Coonhunting the first night of coon season or revival. We chose revival, and later went coon hunting and got two coon.
-Do I hunt out of season to keep my dog good or selling my best dog? I sold the dog.
-Do I love the Buckeyes more than God. At the End of Michigan State during their undefeated season I felt called to quit watching the game. I left Joe Germain through an interception in the end zone and they lost.
-Do I Leave home and family to follow the call of God to preach? - To college, yes. To Kentucky, yes.
Abraham was called to leave his family - He compromised took Dad with him.
-While at college ministering at the T.C.Y. correctional facility in Columbus each Monday. The NCAA Championship game fell on the Monday night.(I failed)
-Last Deer Season -After I Shot 6 point buck I then saw the largest Buck I had seen in the woods. -He stopped to give me a better shot. I tried to rationalize how it would be ok, but deep down I knew better, so I let it pass.
-After returning a junk radio to HH GREGG this week I found the bracket from it in the house. Do I take it back or say they don’t need it?
IS Your happiness paramount or is God’s will. (If you chose happiness you don’t keep it, but..)
My uncle Bob, who a christian, was with my cousin who got caught hunting deer with a tag he had already used. He got mad at the game warden, and hollered at the school bus passing by to knock the game wardens car into the ditch. He lost influence for God over his family over it.
My Grandpa Hinkle loved to coon hunt more than anything, but he loved God more and wouldn’t hunt on Sunday. He sons would go but he would go to Sunday night church, and after midnight he would go out and find them. -Both his sons are now saved.
Even Tithing is a test - Is it yours or God’s?
Are things tools or treasures?
One person wrote earlier this year we had a party for our grand daughter’s first birthday. I noticed a strange behavior. She tore open a very expensive toy, and then played with the wrapping paper! Isn’t that odd behavior? She played with the wrapping paper. If an adult did that we would send him to the mental farm. But let me tell you that when a Christian turns their back on Jesus and starts fooling around with the world it is the same situation. The world is merely the wrapping paper. The valuable gift is a relationship with Jesus. That’s what it is. That’s what you need. That’s the value. Stop playing with the wrapping paper of life.
II Don’t be a Friend of world (or you are enemy of God) James 4:4-5
4You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. (NIV)
You’re cheating on God. If all you want is your own way, flirting with the world every chance you get, you end up enemies of God and his way. (The Message)
You adulterers! Don’t you realize that friendship with this world makes you an enemy of God? I say it again, that if your aim is to enjoy this world, you can’t be a friend of God. (NLT)
Can You Love Sin?
“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?”
C. H. Spurgeon
May I Do So and So?
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.
C. H. Spurgeon
III Don’t Conform to the World Romans 12:2
Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. NLT
Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. NIV
We Tend to Copy
Some years ago, musicians noted that errand boys in a certain part of London all whistled out of tune as they went about their work. It was talked about and someone suggested that it was because the bells of Westminster were slightly out of tune. Something had gone wrong with the chimes and they were discordant. The boys did not know there was anything wrong with the peals, and quite unconsciously they had copied their pitch. So we tend to copy the people with whom we associate; we borrow thoughts from the books we read and the programs to which we listen, almost without knowing it. God has given us His Word which is the absolute pitch of life and living. If we learn to sing by it, we shall easily detect the false in all of the music of the world.
Donald Grey Barnhouse
The Phillips Translation reads: "Don’t let the world around you squeeze you into its own mold."
Do you dress different from the world?
-Modesty (Style may come back to us but we can’t follow it) (Mens basket ball shorts)
-Extravagance
-Hair Style (The Bible does have something to say)
Do you talk different from the world?
-Your choice of words
-Your jokes
Do you go different places than the world?
Is your music different from the world?
Is your movie taste different from the world?
Are their movies you won’t see?
Is you TV watching different from the world?
When is the last time you changed the channel?
Do you have a list of channels and shows banned?
Is the content of your internet viewing different from the world?
Is you Church attendance different from the world? Bible reading and prayer?
Is your politics different from the world?
Is your treatment of others different than the world?
Even love enemies
Is your handling of money different than the world?
-Debt, Tithe, Saving, Giving to needy, Gamble to get rich -When Jesus warns of it
Is your attitude different from the world?
-Humility or Pride
-Sweet or Sour
-Nice or Nasty
-Positive or Negative
If you never told your coworkers you were a Christian would they know?
Conclusion:
A rich man bought an island so he could get back to the beauty of nature and solitude. Friends convinced him to build a golf course so he’d have something to do - then a hotel to house the guests who came to play golf - then a shopping mall for the wives of the golfers - then a hospital to care for emergencies - then a police station to take care of the crime that developed.
Soon, he could no longer see the natural beauty of the island or the ocean, nor could he hear the sounds of nature or the crashing of the ocean waves. He had put too many things in the way.
That’s the way it is with us and God - we have so many other things in the way, we have lost our communion with God. That’s why we should "love not the world".
The love of the world will choke out the awareness of the presence of God.
