What In The World Is Worldliness?

Illus: For example, I have seen folks actually fall in love with cars, houses, boats, campers, flowers and etc.

There is not anything sinful with liking these things, but there is definitely something wrong when a person fall in love with these things.

You see love is something special above everything on the face of the earth.

It is an emotion that we humans share in a human relationship with each other, not with a car, a house, a boat or a camper or flowers.

People all the time use the term LIKE AND LOVE inter changeable frequently, but they are wrong in their use of these two emotions as being the same.

It is almost certain that you like someone whom you love, but it is not necessarily true that you love someone whom you like.

Illus: This fellow on television called the pillow guy (Mike Lindell) sells pillows and sheets and in one of his advertisement he has a woman sitting on the side of a bed and she says, “I DON’T JUST LIKE MY SHEETS, I LOVE THEM!”

When we say we love these things we are putting these things on the same level of a human relationship.

The word love is a very special word for a very special relationship.

Illus: For example, in the South it is not unusual to go into a restaurant and the waitress will say, “Darling, what do you want! They use words like Darling, Sweetheart, Honey all the time in addressing their customers especially.

Illus: Except when you go in the Waffle House and the waitress has been smacking on a piece of chewing gum she has had in her mouth for the last three days, and she says “Hey buster! what do you want!”

However, years ago I remember the first time I heard these very special words like Darling, Sweetheart, or honey I was dining in a fine restaurant with some preachers at a dinner and I was the first to give my order to the waitress and she said to me in a loving voice, “Sweetheart what do you want!”

Now I am use to my wife calling me SWEETHEART but not some other woman and she caught me off guard.

And several of the preachers looked at me funny and suspiciously like I had something going with this waitress, and I said in front of this waitress and these preachers,(And I felt like Bill Clinton) I do not know this woman and they started laughing at me!!!

You see these words are special words that we use in addressing our spouse. So I think it is appropriate to say I like my home, my car my boat, camper, I like flowers but it is inappropriate to say I LOVE THEM.

But there are people who actually love the things of the world. God tells us to LOVE NOT THE WORLD!!!

Let me illustrate…

God told Abraham in Hebrews 11:8-10 By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went. By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise: For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.

In these verses God said to Abraham. I have a plan for you Abraham but for you to enjoy this wonderful plan I have for you, you are going to have to leave this pagan land Ur in which you now live. That is…

• If you want to see where I am taking you, you have to leave here.

• I do not care how much you love the land of Ur, if you want me to bless you, you are going to have leave here.

• In other words God was saying to Abraham you will never know where God is taking you unless you are willing to leave here.

When it comes to LOVING THIS WORLD God tells every Christian you have got to be willing to leave this pagan land in which you live.

When God tells us to LOVE NOT THE WORLD, He is not talking about a physical world in which He created.

He is talking about the evil world that governs this physical world.

For example:

• We have the world of finance

• We have the world of sports

• We have the world of entertainment

• And we also have the world of evil that tries to lure us from loving God and putting Him first in our lives.

It is this world that God says LOVE NOT THE WORLD. The Bible warns us not to fall in love with this evil world.